We Could Be Monsters, You and I
by CrimsonSky47
Summary: In which Eve was never woken up by Elsword and wakes up on her own, never went with them for their adventures, never joins the Elgang. And at that very moment, Add finds what he's looking for. So under a bargain, together they work; to perfect the solution of time travel. [add/eve]
1. Bargains

_**A/N:** Hi, er, Elsword Fandom. So I started playing Elsword like a couple of month's ago and I totally got hooked on the characters Add and Eve. Especially the class paths Diabolic Esper and Code:Nemesis. I sort of am very well like a newborn child in this game and fandom (hell, I'm not even far mainly due to me fearing my keys will shatter and school) but I have attempted, somewhat, to write a fanfiction for this pairing, Add x Eve._

_This fanfiction was originally going to be a one-shot, although it got too long and too similar to a chapter fanfiction, so I decided to make it that way. It was going to be a prelude to a collection of them - fifty prompts - all surrounding DE x C:N._

_The main idea of this is **what if the Elgang never/made it to Altera too late and Add found Eve first. **Also Eve becoming Add's travel companion while he finds a way - Time Tracer path - to make the perfect time travel equation if he isn't allowed to use Eve's codes. As for the Elgang...The choice of adding them in the story remains up there, but there will be cameos or hints of their appearance._

_Uh...I don't have a beta, so I tried my best to keep my mistakes minimal as possible. Apologies if there are a lot. _

* * *

_A queen makes a bargain with a man drowned with insanity._

* * *

"Aren't you a queen?"

The simple question makes Eve pause. Moby and Remy circle behind her, but she puts a hand out to signal them to a halt, allowing them to just hover in the air by her. She blinks for a moment, before nodding her head in certainty.

Though her opponent's smirk widens, in despite of that, she sees some kind of reluctance within those crazed purple iris, as if what he's doing is just a simple adlib. But he continues, the nasod dynamo behind him floating idly while he continues his speech.

"A queen of a race that ceases to exist," he says mockingly, and Eve feels something inside her overheat. Before she could raise her arm to give a command, Add continues his speech, silencing her movements effectively. "Doesn't that frustrate you?"

She keeps her silence, analysing his motives; but she is unable to figure it out. "What do you mean," she almost spits out, her hand clenching to a fist.

Add cackles, and it makes her codes enraged. Then he takes a step forward, minimizing the distance that set them apart, and traced her chin with his fingers. "Haven't you ever thought that maybe, there was a possibility that your race could have existed?"

A possibility that her race could have existed, Eve repeats in her mind as her programming attempts to decipher the words. It had been centuries since the war had crumbled her kingdom, so there could be absolutely no way for her race to have survived the time skip. The war had been too brutal as she had found out, eliminating the Nasods from existence. So what was this lunatic implying? The queen is tempted to swipe that hand away and order her servants to attack, but she suddenly feels an uncertain reluctance in her system.

While Add's expression was driven with insanity, there was something else - her mind says maybe it had been remorse, as humans say – in his face that told her this wasn't just a ploy, a coax. "Have you ever considered the option of time travel?" he adds emphasis on the last two words, his voice softening ever so slightly. Eve feels an unnatural shiver down her spine when he moves his hand down to her cheek, brushing his thumb on the diamond. "The possibility of going back, stopping the outbreak between humans and Nasods?"

_Time Travel_, her mind registers. The gold orbs look against lilac, and she also notes the way how his smirk slowly drops as he continues to speak. She feels the way his hand trembles a little bit, and her throat constricts as the option starts to sound less absurd over thought.

"Think about it, Nasod Queen. Time Travel could lead you into the right timeline. You could save your family," his teeth grits at the sentence, but she could note the way he forces a smile to remain, "You could save your kingdom. And while you were at it, countless deaths could have been prevented in humans and Nasods alike."

Eventually his hand drops – Eve finds herself missing that warmth, just a little bit – and they both fall into silence. Add backs up and they stare at each other; he's waiting for a response, she's thinking of one. The idea doesn't sound terrible, she admits; but was it worth the sacrifice? Technically speaking, wouldn't it consume the entirety of her soul, therefore meaning she would never be able to move. So how could she travel back in time if the token was her life? So even if she did allow him to use her codes, there would be no way for _her _to travel back.

Unless Add was saying he would do it. That he would travel back and save _her _and the kingdom of Nasods. But that was highly unlikely. He probably had his own motives for wanting to travel back in time – she remembers the way his tone darkens at the thought of saving his family – and hers was probably not the same.

Though, she couldn't drop the idea either. She had failed one option (King Nasod's betrayal left a scar deep in her core) and another option seemed far into infinity. She may never come across a better idea.

Eventually Add grows tired of waiting; he frowns, a murmur escaping his lips ("I guess that didn't work either," he says in a hushed tone) and he turns his heel. Lifting his hood up, he places his hands back in his pockets while his Nasod Dynamo form into their hovercraft form. "I'm not going to give up until I obtain your codes," he says spitefully, not giving one last glance. His shoulders are slumped and he starts to head off when he hears a quiet word.

"Wait."

It surprises him, and an ounce of hope rises inside his blood. Turning back almost immediately, he was about to say something among the lines of "have you finally decided to give me your codes" or "you want to give me your codes?" until it falls back in his throat when Eve runs forth, grabs his collar and pulls him down, making them on eye level with minimal distance.

"I'll help you," she announces, and Add's heart almost leaps in surprise. He almost stumbles from his dynamo and almost falls flat on the floor in excitement until she finishes her sentence. "But I won't give you my codes."

His hope dies somewhere further along the way and he plummets in disappointment. It's almost amusing to watch how quickly his expressions change; while Add is a lunatic, he's very easy to read. Anger follows the disappointment, and just as when he's about to grab her in a chokehold, Moby and Remy stand protectively around their queen. "Why not?!" he grunts, his dynamos rushing forward and forming an offensive stance. Though Eve stays still, unfazed by his anger.

"I'll help you find another way," she responds simply, folding her arms. Add is momentarily confused, before he reverts himself back to angry. The Dynamos spark with magnetism around him and his left eye ominously glows, and yet Eve doesn't move.

"There _is_ no other way," Add spat, preparing himself for battle. Eve simply takes a step forward, while Moby and Remy surround her with a similar action. "There is. I will help you find it."

He's about to retort, until he realizes that she was far too close in front of him, and she has his shirt collar in her fist once more. There is a surprising and fierce look of determination in her eyes that makes the boy almost fall weak before her, and that's almost the same moment he knew.

He knew he was going to serve this queen, no matter he likes it or not.

"There will be a way," she says in a hushed whisper, and their faces are closer than normal for him to hear. His dynamo stop their sparks and his left eye reverts to normal uncharacteristically as he bows his head to listen for a reason not even _he _knows. "And _we're _going to find it. After all…."

"…A queen does _anything _for her people."

* * *

Add - Base

Eve - Base

I'll write them at the bottom since I sort of think it's easier to figure it out if you read it? Sort of a tldr...

I'm honestly sorry if I made their characters out of place - such as Eve being too cold, or Add being less insane than I say. If it seems that way, I'll try my best to work up my game!

Please go easy on my fragile heart, haha!


	2. Tweaking

**A/N:** _Wow! I am surprised at the amount of people who are actually interested in this story! Although I'm a little bit ashamed to admit most of the writing was incredibly based on extensive research rather than me finding them myself in the game (because I'm really paranoid my keys will shatter plus I already felt my wallet empty itself at the attempt of getting better...somehow) so I'd like to say in advance that I am and would be wrong in the usage of certain skills. Which is why I tried, as best as I could, to avoid having to write them - as I say before, I am like a newborn child. *clutches head* P-please go easy on me..._

_This chapter is longer than the last. I have tried desperately to write Add and Eve as best as I base this off research (for the reader wondering, yes, I have a C:N although it's sitting at an Exotic like literally just became an Exotic) and of course, my own interpretation of their character. Most of the content will be made-up since I still haven't managed to grasp an understanding for the use of certain objects in the game. _

_Because this is a longer chapter I do actually expect there will be a lot of mistakes, so I apologize in advance! Even my own skills fail me too often...I wrote this right after I wrote chapter one which is why if it seems a little bit out of place, it's because I really intended this to be a one-shot but it got too long._

_I forgot, actually, to state this in the previous chapter so I will do it now. _

**Disclaimer: I do not claim Add, Eve - the game Elsword as my own. They belong to KoG. The only thing that sort of belongs to me is the idea, and of course, the fanfiction.**

* * *

_He isn't just a lunatic - he's a lunatic genius._

* * *

The first couple of months were almost like a repeat of their lifestyle before she had decided to help him. He would attack her in an attempt to obtain her codes; she would defend herself with the same determination to protect her codes. The only large differences was that the duels were shorter than before; the lunatic finds the attempt more futile than the last, and becomes more savvy enough to know that he won't be gaining those programs and the core any time soon, so he doesn't add as much effort. The other difference is that instead of separating, they accompany each other – Eve is a queen of her word, and Add convinces himself it's a ploy he makes up to obtain the treasure quicker – into their journey for a way to travel back in time.

Eventually, the fighting dissipates and the two end up somewhat similar to co-workers: _similar_. While physical fighting has calmed down over time and almost becomes non-existent, that doesn't stop the two from verbally lashing – Add thinks it's a great idea to make fun of her figure from time to time, Eve retorts back with comments about his lack of social skills and saying that 'he is no better than her especially in _that _area' much to his irritation – from occurring pretty much every opportunity they get.

But over time, Eve grows used to Add's company. In more occasions that she could probably count, behind the psycho first impression, Add is more of a genius than he lets on. Not that she'd admit she has had trouble with machinery (she's a queen of a race pretty much full of those, so why on earth would she have trouble?) but the psychopath has probably helped her understand the mechanics and fundamental strength of a single drone than she probably ever knew. She also won't admit that he looks a lot nicer with the calm demeanour he places when he looks at Nasod machines and rambles on about the possible programming used behind, the type of metal used to mould this monster and the estimation of production time for one to be created.

That being said, the struggles become slightly easier once Add creates tactics to fight against the corrupted robots. The hard part is when she actually attacks; as they journey together, the monsters grow stronger (she _will_ admit this) and she feels like her limit might have to be breached (she will _not _admit this) in order to succeed. Not only her, Moby and Remy come close to their threshold too, and eventually she would break before she even comes close to her goal.

Unfortunately, she finds keeping it away from her companion as a secret more difficult than ever for Add is always watching her; psychotic grin or no. While she struggles to finish, he fights with confidence, his nasod dynamo backing him up magnificently as he speeds to her aid if he finishes quicker than her. Which happens more often than she'd like.

Eventually they come to a standstill that humiliates the queen; a monster had finally sought and exhausted her to the point where Moby and Remy could no longer fight. It raises its sword to squash her with the metal and roars with its rage – and Eve, for the first time since her wake, feels the emotion of fear. Her body has begun to short-circuit and the two nasods huddle close to her as she braces herself for the impact.

…Only to feel the fleeting sensation of flying instead.

"What the _fuck _were you thinking," there is a hiss by her censor as she is roughly placed against a person's chest. There are arms carrying her while hers hold Moby and Remy protectively in a hug, and when she looks up she sees a concerned iris looking down at her. Add wasn't laughing, cackling, or making fun of her – quite the opposite, actually. He held her in his arms and hovered into a high and safe distance away from the monster and simply sighed in exasperation.

She finds herself unable to say anything but helplessly stare at him; her body is overheating and there are several codes inside trying to fix the broken circuits but to no avail. Moby and Remy lie still in her arms, and for once she really can't find a better option than to just sit there, humiliated.

"You've reached – or maybe even gone past your limit, haven't you," Add says, and it surprisingly stings to hear him say it even though she already knows. His expression is deadpan, but his left eye glows ominously and the nasod dynamo by his feet spark fiercely. "I guess that was to be expected, you aren't a combat unit after all, Nasod Queen. Jeez, how am I supposed to get your core if you are destroyed?"

He re-adjusts himself slightly. "Hold on to me," he orders, and it's equipped with an uncharacteristic lack of insanity and instead, a dark tone of serious. "I'll finish it. We'll deal with your codes later, Eve."

She does as she was told out of helplessness, and grips his shirt tightly with a clenched fist. He secures his left arm to wrap as much as it could around her to hold her up while his right hand removed itself from the bottom of her knee, and allowed her legs to just rest on his arm while he descended down towards the beast.

The fight is short-lived, to say at least. Mostly because her head rocks too much and her programming is trying to argue with her human instincts that she should stay awake, or else there may or may not be difficulty in solving the broken coding. Her eyes fall shut at some point, when Add's grip tightens, the sound of his cackling and dynamo force slowly fading away in the darkness.

She wakes moments after to the scent of fresh air and to her surprise; Moby and Remy are awake too, fully functional and gently prodding her on the hand. She's laid against a tree, and there are blue screens everywhere; they are filled with charts and a bountiful of information, ranging from small illustrations and diagrams of various nasods plus codes that she can't seem to recognise. They also link into some mathematical equation complete with coordinates and symbols that seemed too foreign to her understanding.

Eve soon realises that she's resting her head against his shoulder because there is a vibration by her makeshift pillow followed by the sound of twisted chuckles. "Just a little more, maybe revise the law over again and find a substantial extract that will be the power source," slips out of Add's mouth as he fiercely types onto a blue screen, various notes and bullet points scattered everywhere around him. His Nasods lay dormant underneath him, supporting him just slightly above ground.

"What's that?" she asks, her voice laced with drowsiness. Add flinches, and then his expression seemed to drop from its gleeful insanity to a more scornful frown.

"While you were resting and make me do all the work despite you clearly telling me you'd help," he draws out sarcastically, "I had figured out that I'd have to start somewhere if I had to travel back in time without the use of your codes."

Eve opens her eyes completely at the sound of that. "Repeat that?" she asks, surprised, lifting her head to look at him.

His face turned pink slightly, and he closed the programs to her confusion. "No, I will not," he clears his throat, and Eve hides a smile. "Though, I have a question for _you_ instead."

"What is it?"

"You plan on helping _me_," he repeats again, turning towards her. He lifted a hand and tapped the gem on her forehead a little harshly, and Eve winced in pain. Before she knew it, as she clutched her head, there were hands on her shoulders that roughly pushed her on her back. Stunned for a couple of moments, she immediately attempted to protest back until he moved quicker and took her arms instead, pinning them next to her head, trapping her on the ground.

He has a rather arrogant smirk while his eyes stared into hers. "But as I said before, you aren't a combat unit. So how are you to be any use if you can't be one?"

Eve felt offended by the mere statement. She struggled against him in an attempt to gain control, but he was simply stronger than her in physical power. "I mean, I'm already the one thinking of the way to travel back in time with this mathematical equation, plus I have covered for you probably more times than you have for me – if that has ever happened," he snickers, the smirk seeming to widen. She continues to try and even passes a glance to her drones until she realizes that while she's strapped down, the drones were taking care of the dynamo. A real two versus two battle.

So, out of futility, she lays still despite her will. Add continues to sneer mockingly down at her; _he's finally got her in his hands._

"Well, you plan on dissecting me now and using my core, am I correct?" Eve says spitefully, looking back. She was probably wrong to have even trusted him in the first place.

To her surprise, he doesn't do that – or at least, right away. He lowers his head and chuckles deeply, staring her down. "I have that option," he says huskily while he leans, shortening their distance. They had very little separation, so Eve couldn't turn away. "After all, I did say I would get your codes one day, right? This might just be the day."

Her expression remains completely blank. "Then why aren't you doing that now?"

"Because it would be a waste of the hard work I put myself through with that damned equation."

The equation? Her memory feeds her of the one blue screen with a variety of letters, numbers and symbols written all over. It was particularly lengthy and considering how she can just barely understand it (her programming could _just _figure out the components involved the law of physics and magic), she could only wonder how long it had taken for him to figure it out. Needless to say, it did make her feel a tad bit useless considering he was right.

_Not that she'd admit that._

"Keh, it took me so long. And I'm nearly done with it," he grunts, shutting his eyes. Eve continues to stare at him in confusion. "I did all of that while you just followed me everywhere I went. So really, what have you done?"

He's right. What _had _she done? "I-I…"

"No matter," he lifts one of his hands off her arm and brushes her fringe to the side, exposing the gem. She fell limp, stunned in thought. She would never admit, but Add is right, technically she had just followed him around in despite the fact she had clearly said she would be the one helping _him _instead of the other way around. Plus now she's trapped and Add's probably decided to take her codes and core now.

Would it save her race if she let him do as he wishes? She shut her eyes and clung onto that false belief, closing most of her systems. Considering how he's already got her trapped, she wouldn't be able to escape anyway.

"Oi, Nasod Queen. I didn't ask you to fall asleep."

"You're going to dissect me anyway, so I might as well prepare myself."

There was a click of his tongue, and the voice sounded closer than before. "You really want me to do that? And to think I was actually being nice and helping you activate a certain code. Oh well, as you wish-"

Her eyes snap open at the sound of the word, and finds Add's face extremely close to hers, a smirk curving in his lips. Rather than an insane, psychotic smile; it seemed to be leaning more to the side of playful rather than threatening. Out of reflex, she pushes him away with her hand, effectively flipping their positions: this time she was the one on top, and quite weakly pinning him on the ground. Though, he didn't seem to mind considering how he doesn't even resist.

"What do you mean, 'activate a certain code'? What do you know about my programming?"

He just looks to the side while grinning tauntingly. "A few things, actually. Like there are hidden codes that potentially could influence your operations, keke."

"Spill it, Add. Have you done anything of some sort to my operational system during the time I was unconscious?" she narrowed her eyes. The teen genius only looked back at them with an all-knowing gleam in his eyes, some sort of enjoyment of knowing something that a queen doesn't know plastered all over his features. It grinded her gears a little bit.

Add licks his lips. "Well, I can't say I didn't just leave you be," he says cryptically, further adding to her annoyance. "I did a couple of calibration checks, inspections, and if the time composed of writing a question wasn't used, I did a little bit of tweaking."

She felt violated at the mere explanation. A lowly like him touching a queen like that? Although if he had indeed tweaked her a bit, the only differences she worked with was the fact that her process and reaction rate had been increased significantly. There was also the strange exception of several parts of metal foreign to her placed above the locations of where wounds once scraped her body. Also there was a strange input of more data in her mind of certain techniques she never knew she could do.

The lunatic looked at her expectantly. Eve slipped off from above him and eventually wrapped her arms around her frame. There was some kind of mortification and gratitude mixed in her systems while she let her fingers brush her biceps trying to feel for any sort of weird attachment Add might have placed. Sighing heavily in exasperation, Add grabbed her wrist.

"Keh, how annoying. If you want to know so bad then why don't I test it for you?" he scoffed, "So long as you properly live up to your half of the promise, I won't count this one time."

Her eyes widened as he moved without warning, sitting up, sliding his arm around her waist and hoisting her up to his lap without permission. Before she could push him off and give him the biggest slap she could muster, he brushed a finger by her side; a sensitive spot that her mother had configured into her. Eve almost stilled immediately, her hands stopping on his shoulder.

Out of embarrassment and humiliation she shut her eyes while her sensors picked the sound of his Nasod Dynamo came closer. There was also the sound of Moby and Remy running forward for their queen's distress, but there was a gruff sound that came from Add's throat that told them to halt – and to her shock, they did. Her mind is failing to process the turn of events while Add's shoulder shift and the sound of something slipping out of his pocket are audible to her sensors.

In the haze of data flying around her circuit she doesn't catch the command Add murmurs for his Nasod Dynamo, and there is some kind of crystal shard slipped across the frame of her body plus the electric sensation of magnetic waves flying around her. Immediately her Nasod body takes in the wave and suddenly numbers, commands and data flash before her eyes. _It's somewhat exhilarating_; the human side of her mind barely catches that thought while her fingers grip the fabric of the lunatic's jacket.

Data received.

P-R-O-C-C-E-S-S-I-N-G-D-A-T-A

{/command}code:exotic=intiate{/command}

There's a fleeting, spark of light in her eyes as her mind comes together. Several instances and new blocks of information mend together such as special battle stances and attacks that are perfect for Moby and Remy. More commands and even as far as spells to assist her fellow companions when the time comes necessary. When she slips her eyes open she's surprised to see the sudden increase in length of her hair, tousled on Add's face while he looked up on her with a smirk on his lips.

"Well? How is it?" he asks expectantly. Her sensors overheat.

"I would like to know how you have managed to do that," she says, although she doesn't exactly move from her position. Add grins arrogantly.

"I don't know if you had realized, but every Nasod within them has a hidden code. It's locked within their system and is only unlocked when necessary, transforming the Nasod to become a combat unit," he explains with a haughty voice. "I'm surprised not even a queen yourself knows much about your body. Disappointing~"

There was a resounding slap and a loud yelp of pain that was enough the scatter birds away into the sky.

* * *

Add - Base

Eve - Another Code - Code:Exotic

_Although I understand that she turned into Code:Exotic another way, I wanted to change things up and have Add be the reason. More romantic that way, right? (prepares running shoes) I'm going to have to apologize for the little bit of computer coding placed up there - if it's wrong, I'm sorry. I just wanted to add a little...robotic-ish thing up there. _

_I probably over-exaggerated the whole robot concept on Eve, haven't I? Woops. As for Add, I do think he has a sane side if it's a field he's familiar with. _

I notice many other fan-writers tend to reply to their reviews in this fandom, so I shall do the same!

To Babylon1914: Thank you very much! This what if moment was based off my actual **need **for more Add/Eve focused stories, which bore fruit into this piece.

To Albertrojas: Yeah, it's also the only Add path that I _LOVE _the character design for. As for the Elgang's reactions with them, I still haven't decided whether I should mend them in because I don't really know their personalities too well (because I haven't fully explored the classes that aren't Add nor Eve...I'm ashamed) but I will try at some point.

To Siilver Phantom: Hahaha! Although it's not my ultimate OTP (bites lip, my soul is unfortunately sold to something else) I absolutely **_love _**Add x Eve, and I do actually keep in mind some of the negative fumes the ship holds (Add's stalker vibes and general unhealthy attitude) but I still love it nevertheless. I do own a C:N ... but it's actually still an Exotic. She's such a pretty baby, right?

As for the rest - those who have added the story onto their follows list and favourites - I honestly couldn't be any more motivated from the sheer action alone. People actually like what I write! (tears stream down cheeks) Please keep having faith in me! I'll do my best (for this not to end up abandoned).


	3. Poison (Equivalence)

**_A/N:_**_WOOPS HI GUYS__ IT'S_ BEEN_ SO LONG OH MAN LET ME APOLOGIZE! Okay the story is that when I last updated I wrote that one STRAIGHT after the prologue, meaning I was thinking "Hey this is going to be a oneshot right" until I published it. Because then I totally realized that it WASN'T a oneshot. Then after that I got to writing this chapter but then I was starting to get confused with the storyline. If Add found the Altera Core while base form why do I turn into a 1st Job Path before I even make it to Altera? That confused me so much. The wiki doesn't help at all. _

_So while I tried to make sense of how I was going to bring this fanfic up, I herby state that this **strays **away from **canon **as long as I try to understand this strange sequence of events that happen in Elrios. _

_Because of that issue I put off writing this fanfic for like three days- then MapleStory just had to drag me back making me remember I sealed a deal with that game that involved my soul...and then I got so obsessed with this self-insert Player Character x Orchid ship... Wow. Then I landed back into maple hell and also school hell because for some reason teachers think it's a great idea to swamp all assessments at once (angry yelling). Again, I'm **SO SORRY! **Please forgive me!_

_Because of how guilty I felt I want to know; let me know in the reviews. Do you guys want shorter chapters + quicker updates or lengthy chapters + slower updates? That way I can stop feeling the guilt gnaw my throat and be consistent with you guys! _

_Anyway, more info on the bottom. Thanks guys! _

**Disclaimer: I do not own Add, Eve, Elsword or any sort of content aside from the idea. They all belong to KoG respectively.**

* * *

_This should be enough; consider the two of us as equal._

* * *

The journey continues and everything falls easily down to the feet of the queen thanks to the combat system engraved into her body. Add and Eve swiftly go finish battles, fighting in a combination of both support and offense against enemies that threatened to come close. It's a simple pattern of forward and back, mixed with sparks of purple and blue into the air and Add's laughs of exhilarated pleasure from the downfall of their enemies.

Sometimes she doesn't realize a part of her starts laughing along when a monster gravels by her feet. It's only then when Moby and Remy pass her a glance that mimicked concern had she realized her mistake and immediately clears her throat, pointing a finger forward to alert them of where they are meant to look. Thankfully, Add's too busy pounding enemies with the use of his Particle Shot, creating a flurry of purple and destruction abound.

Although, she is surprised to see that one day, Add is not unscathed as per usual.

Upon the finish using the move he called Particle Accel, the lunatic collapsed onto his knees and coughed out a bad solution of red mixed with a dark green. Blood glazes his lips when he lifts his head up from the ground, wiping them with his sleeve. His skin looks paler and there is a pain that graces his purple eyes while he forces himself up, panting harshly. For once the red that coats the floors is one of his, and to make matters worse, he radiated a green aura while his movements fell groggy and sluggish.

"What's wrong with you?" Eve asks, approaching him carefully. He was very prone to lashing out when he had not had enough sleep or rest and Eve wasn't a fool to test that out, given that in several cases where their camps were ambushed he had unleashed his fury upon the assailants. "I detect a suspicious injection into your bloodstream and overheat in your temperature. Add, are you alright?"

"Keh, does it _look _like it?" he hissed, only to cough several moments later. "Ugh, stupid things. I didn't realize they sting poison."

"The best decision of the situation is to seek help. Coordinates state that the closest town in the area is Elder," she reads, searching through her database. Add chokes out more blood and curses, barely managing to hold himself together. Clasping her hands on her hips, Eve looks around and orders Moby and Remy to carry the lunatic, much to his surprise. "We must make haste. My sensors indicate that the substance is multiplying in cell count in your bloodstream which implies that it's becoming an infection."

To her surprise, Add barely musters up an argument, only grumbling in response while his Nasod Dynamo hoisted him onto the drones. He groaned in pain the entire trip back to the closest town, slightly hindering Eve's concentration and managing to raise a worry inside of her.

When they had reached Elder nightfall had already engulfed the skies, which explains the lack of people in the streets. A bit of misconduct on Eve's part, she admits to herself; if she had noticed his condition earlier this may or may not have affected the results. Nevertheless, as humans say, it never hurts to try?

Sliding into town, she glanced around using her advanced cameras planted in her eyes – courtesy of Add, who wouldn't stop trying to persuade her to modify them – in an attempt to look for the village chief. Or at least, any indication of some kind of medical facility would be helpful. Although it was proven to be a difficult task due to the dim lighting of the moon, with only the light seeping through tiny cracks and the lack of torch hues radiating from wooden buildings weren't helping. Even with advanced cameras she still found some trouble actually making use of them during the night.

Eve for a moment contemplates whether she should tell Add of her difficulty, but decides against it. She didn't need to give him an extra point to make fun of.

"Urgh," Add groans groggily while lying face down on Remy, "If I replace coordinates X and Y there may be a probable mistake, however if I don't do that there won't be enough room to insert the calculation for…"

He hurled painfully, holding his mouth while he swallowed down the bile and blood. Even as a nasod, Eve could indeed tell there was a large effect of malnutrition and lack of sufficient rest causing his body to react with such a way – not to mention the poison seeping into the bloodstream. At the rate he was working, there was a high chance of him collapsing into his own death if he continued the lifestyle. She was sure he wouldn't want to die with his work unfinished and although Eve could easily feed the data through her memory, to continue his tasks would not only become a greater burden, but she was still unsure of the components of the equation and the meanings.

As much as she absolutely hated to admit it, she needed Add to make this work. He had helped her plenty – covering her when she needed it, going as far as tampering with her so she could do better – and in retrospect, she hadn't really done many for his favour.

It was like a blessing had been bestowed upon them once her eyes read a faint light source into the distance. If it wasn't the village chief, it could at least be someone who could aid them in finding them. With haste, she strode along the pathway with her nasod drones – carrying the rather disoriented Add – trotting behind.

Clearing her throat, she stood in front of the door with a foot on the step and raised her knuckle against the wood. Tapping it three times, she opened her mouth to speak before Add's moaning of confusion cut her off. "Queen," he grunted nasally against Remy, "Where are you taking me…we should be on our way back to the Altera Camp…"

"I'm afraid it would be of greater help if we had chosen to seek a human instead of a Pongo, Add. Your stubbornness will not help you this time," she calmly replied, resuming her earlier task. Knocking against the door again, she listened in to a gruff voice approaching the door with thumping steps.

"Who is it at this hour," an elder man with a slightly plump size opened the door. Eve stared up at him with a blank look while Add just collapsed back into a groaning mess of pain on her drone. Gazing at the young queen, the elder man raised an eyebrow.

"Are you another here to seek for any of my products? I'm sorry, ma'am, but I believe it is beyond closing time. Come back again tomorrow."

"That is not what I have come here for," Eve responded quickly, holding the door open without much effort to the merchant's surprise. "Is there a medical facility of some sort within the area? If so, I wish to be directed to it."

The man raised an eyebrow, before hearing the sound of Add's ridiculous dramatic noise of pain while lying on Remy. He turned towards him before promptly holding his nose straight after, taking a step back with a tear leaking out of his eye. "My El! This boy is doused in poison is he not? You have made a great decision to seek my help right away. Echo will be up at this moment in time probably finishing a last few orders, she can help you."

A part of Eve wondered whether the stench of poison was really that incredible – she did have sensors and a processing system, but after she had been alerted the scent that radiated from Add's figure she felt nothing more than indifferent. Well of course she did; she was a nasod after all. While her design was based on human structure, it didn't mean she was actually human too.

….Although, there was a strange additional factor in her engine that she doesn't recall having before. Must have been one of the many additions the lunatic had (without permission) adapted into her drive.

So while they followed the elder man within the darkness of the town, they slipped into an alleyway that lead to a small little workshop by the side, not too far off the path they came from. A part of Eve wondered why on El didn't she sense the light that had been shining quite brightly earlier – the light that seeped through the cracks of the walls from the workshop were much more evident than the light that came from the elder man's house anyway. Placing that aside, she glanced back and noticed that her companion had fallen silent.

Taking a quick re-access of his condition, as it turns out the infection had increased quite significantly over the course of time much to her shock. An unfamiliar feeling of tightness seeped into her core program while her feed reassures her that he is actually still breathing, waging a battle with the illness. His expression under the dim torch light was still very much pained. The nasod queen found the sight to be both disheartening and ironic; Add was an incredible neat freak to the point where he found no use in walking because he thought his shoes would be dirty.

But the sight of him hunched over Remy's figure, with his face dirtied in ash? That was _not _Add. The lack of cackling, snickering, spiteful comments was making her unnerved. With his sprinkled periwinkle locks tousled hair falling to his face, drenched in sweat, his breathing was shallow and heavy. This was not a good sign.

Eve turned her heel and began to walk faster. If Add were to perish just like this, it would bring the whole bargain and deal to a shabby end. Once they had halted to a small door, she narrowed her eyes while the plump man knocked on the door, calling through the wood.

"Echo! Echo, you are still awake, right? A boy with a poison infection into his body is in desperate need of a cure!"

It took a couple of moments before the door was opened to reveal a little girl with a lollipop hanging from her mouth, goggles placed messily over her face. Her white hair was released freely while she had a hand on the knob that was taller than her and the other on her hip, looking quite concerned. "Mr. Hoffman, at this hour what seems to be the problem?" she asked, muffled by the sweet in her mouth.

"Echo," the plump man—Hoffman, turned and stood to the side, making way for Remy to move forward. "This boy is quite heavily infected with poison. The stench is overwhelming! Plus the groaning had stopped which is to indicate the lack of strength. A critical case."

The little girl pulled Add's cheek and ran her fingers across his face, stretching and opening his mouth while she hummed in thought. Tapping his forehead and the nape of his neck, she dusted her palms and frowned, pulling the lollipop out of her lips. "He seems to have abused a certain type of power that has weakened him," Echo concluded, sliding a strand of his fringe to the side. "The poison wasn't lethal before his condition had given in to the cause. He does not have long to live; the only way he could is if we take the poison away from his body."

She turned towards the Queen, who's expression darkened at the words 'not long to live'. "This boy seems to have used a similar cause like Banthus the Thief. He suffered the same symptoms however sought a special method to recover."

"What is this special method?"

"I will do it myself however I require the lock of the notorious thief. From the sight of his condition, he is in no shape to do so," Echo replied, plopping the lollipop back into her mouth. "Go to the Underground Waterway. I believe the path will be clear because a group of three misfits had come and announced that they have brought justice to the issue, so there should be no worries. No matter how tainted the lock will be from sewage water it still holds Banthus' DNA, so it can be dealt with."

Eve nods, switching her systems to combat mode. Walking with Remy to the bedroom through the thin hallway, the drone slipped the unconscious lunatic onto the sheets with a simple motion. To their surprise, the nasod dynamo had moved on their own to pull the covers on top of him, tucking him nicely onto a bed while he heaved a breath. Add cringed in his sleep, clutching his frame.

"It hurts…it really hurts…make it stop…"

Biting her lip, the queen turned her heal and motioned for her servants to follow her. The vulnerability of Add was so foreign she could not bear to watch; he was always so ruthless and reckless with his actions, mixing insanity with genius. They never talked about the past due to the lunatic's constant dismissal of the topic, but every now and then Eve could see within the rare nights of his sleep that he was constantly plagued with nightmares. During those nights he tossed and turned, crying for help – but for the sake of his, she decides to delete (store) the memory in her mind.

Stepping out the door, she set her GPS system and rushed out without hesitation. Her motive was set and her tracker aided her haste while she dashed through the town of Elder, searching through the path for the Underground Waterway. It wasn't a difficult task to find; all it took was her to come close with a man called Wally's Castle and slip through the border, sliding down to the small gate door down below which was strangely bent open.

Had she chosen to do a proper inspection she would have realized that the bending of the metal was recent, but she placed that aside; her feet colliding with the green sewage water. A scent which her feed had labelled as revolting lurked around in the darkness, activating her sensors to maximum capacity while her white shoes made contact with the grimy flooring. There was still the sound of rushing and dripping water that remained audible from the hollow waterway, but otherwise there seemed to be no threat in the distance.

Oddly, her sensors had picked up some strange slashes printed on the walls which seemed to be the mark created from a sword. It wasn't just that either; there were strange human footprints just around the size of hers plastered everywhere across the sewage floors, with the small scent of ash being brought up in her feed. The arrows hanging on the floors weren't to be missed either; they radiated some sort of green energy.

Although there were these strange implications of earlier trespass, she honestly couldn't care any less.

Because right now the chances of Add surviving were dwindling per second. If she didn't hurry it up, he was going to die.

At that thought she quickened her pace, her graceful steps becoming harder as sewage water splashed everywhere, going through the holes planted on the gates and running to the end. Surprisingly, the entire passage through had been peaceful with the lack of threat level increase. She was _slightly _disappointed however once her sensors have acquired data on a life form lying further in, she felt her hope rise.

….[Nasod-Human Life Form is within 20 metres reach. Subject is still breathing but consciousness is not applicable. Data recording.]

Eve raised an eyebrow. Nasod-Human Life Form? What precisely is this nonsense?

[Nasod-Human Life Form is within 15 metres reach.]

[Nasod-Human Life Form is within 10 metres reach.]

[Nasod-Human Life Form is within 5 metres reach.]

The closer she approached, the more ridiculous it was to believe.

Was this Banthus the Thief?

Accessing the figure closer she had found a metallic structure mounted onto his arm with a Nasod drive flowing from pipes, connected straight into the man's bulky frame. His necklace was gleamed while a sword seemed to be displaced right next to him. Like her feed states, there was a rise in the unconscious man's frame despite the fact that he was lying face down. There were traces of sword wounds, arrow marks and burns with a dash of bruises indicating a fight had taken place just earlier during the day. According to her data, the match was the same except for the small addition, concluding that this was indeed the thief she was after.

Staring blankly, the first thought she had was to try to eject the Nasod drive from the arm without even considering it could be his life source. However, her conscience had told her it wasn't what she had come for.

That's right, she was here for the sake of Add finding a cure.

Putting a foot on the thief's head and pressing down, she grabbed a handful of his locks and effectively ripped it out. To her surprise the thief had no objection whatsoever to the rather harsh approach, even after human blood seemed to have seeped down the bald spot. The queen actually found the sight to be oddly contenting—

…Shaking her head, she vigorously deleted that thought. That was a bit morbid.

Turning her heel, she started another dash out back the palace. Moby and Remy followed her closely by her heels while her hair swayed from the breeze, the white boots stomping on the sewage water. She had already wasted enough time making her way there and eyeing all the detail within the passageway, so the she had no more time to waste. The scenery passed by in a flash while she ran through Elder, searching for Echo's workshop.

By the time she had made it back, her etiquette seemed non-existent while she quite boisterously slammed the door open. The locks were squeezed tightly under the curl of her fist while Echo quickly approached her, emerging from the bedroom where Add was laying. "Oh goodness, thank you for coming back so fast! His condition had taken for the worse when I had realized he was suffering from malnutrition. Please watch over him while I go make the cure."

Swiftly taking the ingredient from Eve's grasp, they exchanged a nod while Eve walked into the room. Taking a deep breath, she took a seat next to the bed rest and she watched his frame chest rise and sink. Moby and Remy slid to under her hands while she just watched him sleep, accessing his condition; waiting uneasily for the cure.

[Heart Rate is currently at a Speed of 30 to 80 beats per minute. Subject ADD appears to be unconscious; nervous levels have increased over the course of fifteen minutes. Infection has spread from throat to right chest, spreading to the right at an estimation of five minutes. Blood pressure is low.]

Sometimes Eve forgets how fragile human life really was. While she was aware that Add had probably manipulated a function of himself to have a magical input, he was still very much human. Therefore the nights where he constantly wrote and calculated the physics of time and energy it took for travel was definitely stacking up with the fact that he constantly passes eating while continuing to fight. With the latter Eve feels guilt for because more often, even _after _her upgrades he manages to do most of the bidding for.

In the end, it was never really an equivalent exchange despite her convincing herself it was.

[Breathing rate has decreased. Chances of survival are at an estimated 30%.]

"Add, you can't die here," she murmured, sliding her gloved hand over his head. "You have to survive. We are working together, you comprehend? I will take over the other half of the calculations. You need to survive, _please_."

The opening of the door surprised her for a moment, making her recoil her hand almost instantly. Echo gingerly walked in holding a vial with a strange light emitting from the liquid. She placed it on the bed rest and took her lollipop out of her lips.

"This is an antidote, however because the infection has spread so far it will require more than this to block it completely off. He has those nasod drones connected to his heart by sensor so all he needs is to install a safety drive to be safe," Echo explained, gesturing the vial. "Waking him up will not be plausible at this situation. I could only liquidize the method, unfortunately, so…"

For some reason, her smile turned a bit Cheshire while she turned towards the queen. "I need you to give it to him by mouth-to-mouth resuscitation."

Eve raised an eyebrow. She only had minimal data on human medical procedures, so she had no idea what 'mouth-to-mouth resuscitation' was. The Alchemist seemed to notice her confusion for her expression seemed to grow more devious with a light tint of red smearing her cheeks. "It's when you put your mouth against his to give him air! But in this case, it will be the antidote."

…Oh.

Her sensors overheated for a moment. Really? Was this really the only way Add could receive the antidote? Could they really not wake him up?

"Miss Nasod," Echo's voice lowered as her seriousness returned. "He is going to die. Please do so."

Eve bit her lip, her sensors and feed going all over the place before her resolution was set. She was right. Add was going to die unless she had did something, and especially how she had not done much for his favour if he passed on this was going to never be erased from her memory. Besides, she was a nasod; mouth-to-mouth resuscitation meant nothing to her. Right? It's not as if she was going to become/and or gain human qualities aside from her structure anyway.

Taking the vial, she faced Add's head to an upright position. Putting the cap aside, she let the liquid fall to her mouth and leaned over;

Pressing her lips against his, letting the antidote slip from her own and into his mouth. She could hear Moby, Remy and Add's dynamo fluttering in the background while Echo made a small, quiet high pitched noise. Once the antidote had fully been transferred from her system to his, she pulled away, a mass of overheating running all over her engine.

The reaction was instantaneous. A glow enveloped his body while the colour of his skin returned, plus the effects of malnutrition seemed to dissipate along with the fatigue. The most relieving of all was the fact that his expression started to lighten, from pained to a more normal, relaxed one painting his face. The nasod dynamo huddled around its master, sliding under the covers and resting against the pillows while they fell into sleep mode.

"He should be fine for now, expect him to wake up in a couple of hours," Echo added, biting her lollipop. "You did fine today too, Nasod Queen. Please rest for the rest of the night."

Nodding, Eve and Echo exchanged thanks of gratitude and good nights, before Eve resumed to her position on the bed rest.

[Heart Rate is currently at a Resting Speed of 70 to 100 beats per minute. Subject ADD appears to be unconscious; nervous levels have been brought to a neutral level. Infection has decreased incredibly and is currently only residing on a small part of the left chest. Blood pressure is neutral.]

A part of her heart felt a warmness envelop her chest while she watched Add's chest rise and fall. As her body began to switch modes into sleep, she leaned over and rested against the side of his bed, mumbling as she fell into slumber.

Even though he had clearly done more for her, she could start with this to equal the favour.

"For now," she murmured, "consider this the first step to repayment…"

* * *

Add - Tracer -(In Progress) Time Tracer

Eve - Another:Code - Code:Exotic

_Okay there seemed to be some confusion and I would understand that! If you're wondering why Eve is wearing 'white boots' it's because she is **still wearing Base promo clothes **and well I have a special chapter just about clothing in plan hehe. It's mostly because I believe there is a reason characters in video games acquire special clothing, therefore I don't usually have them instant!change into their new outfits. Like for example in Maple there HAS to be a reason why Beta has Shadow Knight Recruit uniform straight during that time skip after the events of the Nine meets Girl video. Did Pietta like have some sort of OP sowing skills and made one for her? Probably...(i'm sorry my love for Zero is endless that it made it here too) _

_(Cough) As for **Echo **I am **aware **she is out of character. Personally I found it really difficult to write children so um...(tosses an awkward excuse) I kind of interpret her to act older for her age? You know those midget characters that act older than they really are? Yeah...Kind of thought she was one of those. _

_Add didn't appear much in this chapter aside from him lying in bed the entire thing! Woops! He'll have a better role next chapter I guess. As for Eve, I'm kind of trying to have her develop some kind of human emotion of course...we'll see how that turns out (sweet smile). I tried to base a lot of this off Add's TTr Quest but then I failed a lot because a lot of it doesn't make sense because it occurs before he even goes to Altera = before he meets Eve. So I made a few changes and tweaks for the sake of romance and possibility hahaha. _

_Hope you guys enjoyed the fluffy-ish chapter. Hopefully it made up for my absence.._

**Reviewer Reply Time! **

To SiilverPhantom: Thanks for the reassurance! I really appreciate it, it gives me faith to continue writing. You're absolutely right, I should stop being lazy and do the storyline myself instead of relying on wikia sources! Also congratulations on being capped! I have never been capped in any game so that's one heck of an achievement haha!

To Babylon1914: Thank you so much! This makes me really happy how you love my writing! I wish to continue to gain support from you too and I will try my best to keep you happy with the story!

To SuzukaMizuchi: Thank you for loving my story! Haha, naughty!Add is a headcanon of mine. Lunatics aren't always crazy, they can be sly too...

To iPloxify: Thank you so much for believing this has lots of potential! I'll try my best to keep it to a standard haha! I know that feeling oh mAN TOO WELL, (pats you) TOO WELL.

To gguueesstt: Thank you!

To Sky-Of-Silver-Lining: Oh wow, I'm flattered! Thank you so much for the compliments! I personally prefer Diabolic Esper. Design Wise, Story Wise, everything wise hahha! He is just so... my type? Like I love how he just lost himself into insanity because of all the failures. Plus the voice acting for him really makes it for me. AND TIME TRACER IS 1000000/10 MY TYPE

To Koru Mask: I'm so happy this is one of your favourites! Thank you!

To Guest: I'll try my best to keep up the wonderful work and keep you happy!

**To All the people who have favourited and followed my story: Thank you so much, honestly, it makes my day to see that you guys love my writing. It gives me faith to continue. Thank you so much for giving up your time to read this!**

Mesti (CrimsonSky47)


	4. Mortality (Inability)

**_A/N:_** Hey guys. Aren't you happy that this update came faster than the last? Although it's a little shorter than the last, haha. I'm actually quite surprised at the amount of people who preferred lengthy chapters and long updates! What a turn out, I thought everyone preferred quicker ones. Well I'll have to apologize that this isn't what I call long - it's only 2.6k words ahaha - and it's only half the length, but I thought it'd be weird if what I had planned had joined up with this one.

There's a bit of swearing in this one. Like every other Add writer we all believe the teenage boy has a filthy mouth. AHAHA, ACTUALLY, I DO TOO SO CAN'T BE HELPED... The writing is all over the place and messy because well, to me insane characters are more than just "fucKYOUALLKEK EKEK AHEHAHAH ITS SO FUN KILLING EVERYONE LOOK AT ALL THIS BLOOD OMG OMG (heart eyes) YOU WANT TO 'PLAY' WITH ME?" type? While Add definitely is that type of person in WBCM he's leaning more into _disoriented and crazy _than that. Cause when you're with a queen like Eve and working on this smart ass project you gotta be at least patient, right?

Anywho, more notes at the bottom.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Elsword, Add, Eve or any sort of content aside from the idea and story. The characters and setting both belong to KoG.**

* * *

_Memento Mori – "Remember that you are Mortal, remember that you will die."_

* * *

_Darkness surrounds him and he stares into the abyss with fear smeared into his iris, head turning – fingers clasping, mouth quivering, __**pain reigning **__– to seek for a light. _

_His throat burns and it spreads across his chest. The inflammation makes him choke while he attempts to gasp for breath – seeking for salvation while he drops onto the floors. His own vision is blurred by the tears which have formed, clinging on his lashes while they overflow from his eyelid, dripping down his cheek. The irony of this all is when his heartbeat begins to slow; if he were scared wouldn't symptoms be consisting of a faster speed? But he cared less because—_

"_Everything hurts."_

_The feeling of fear has never dawned on him so heavily before. He usually contained a grasp for composure – albeit, a twisted type of 'collected' – than this, and yet how could a simple dark room render him in such disorientation? His white tuffs of hair began to soak with sweat much to his disgust, although he found it difficult to think straight with bile and blood rising up his throat. A part of the liquid leaked from his lips before he swallowed it down profusely, a couple pained tears leaking out from the sheer motion alone._

_Despite all of this, he found himself growing more and more tired as he fought the drowsiness that threatened to envelop him. His body had already fallen numb with some functions starting to shut down much to his dismay. His demise grows near while he found the darkness starting to become more and more comforting;_

_Death's arms are warmer than I expected, he thought sardonically. Eventually it becomes more and more difficult to win the battle with the pain that overwhelmed him. The chances of survival diminished at a constant rate that his resistance started to fall futile. _

"_Is this how it ends?" he manages to say through a choked breath. _

_What a sad life he had led. _

_To begin with such a wondrous childhood full of happiness and glee then to have the utopia stripped from his fingers, what a terrible life. _

_To have descended into the wretched hands of fate who spindled his life with slavery and isolation, what a terrible life._

_To have over-exerted himself to the point of the present (death) for the sake of changing the past – to have been filled with resolve in the belief that he could – oh glory thy El lady, how terrible his life was. _

_How cruel the threads of fate had bound him so. Was it bad to wish for a different way of things how could have gone? Was it bad for him to __**want **__his family back? Was it a sin to believe that maybe he could__** see her **__one last time and alter the present? _

_If it was a sin, will the El lady be so kind to be merciful upon this wretched soul who wanted nothing more than the warmth of his mother's hand holding his. _

_As he found his breathing rate decrease with the first stage of decomposition entering his lower half, he found himself to be regretful. To be ending at such a shabby end like this; how pathetic of him. Losing to the abuse of his body condition, losing to his __**mortality**__, how could he be so worthless? _

"_Ah, mother," he barely croaks. "I just want to see you." _

_Just before his eyes close, there is a light that shines upon the almost-corpse within the darkness. No matter how scarce the light was, it was enough for him to halt his actions and just gaze onto the dim brightness. The light was warm and gentle, harbouring a feeling of nostalgia that spreads into his body. It was soft, kind and almost - just almost – reminded him of the touch of his beloved mother. _

_In that instance, he believes he sees the sight of heaven._

_There is a woman with locks of white staring down at him with the most gentle, loving expression far into the distance. Her lips move to mouth words that his ears can't hear. Her eyes are purple like his iris; a significant resemblance shared between the two of them. It takes him an instant to know who she was. _

"_Mother…?" _

_Strangely, from the sight the pain disappears. The flaming heat and agony vanishes so simply from the light's touch. It was slightly uncanny, but he felt extremely relieved by the end of it all. However -_

"_Mother!"_

_Even with the pain non-existent his body doesn't move. His soul screams with desperate need to reach out for the lady, but his body doesn't move an inch. He tries to wrack and throb and move – but all his attempts are to no avail. His vocal chords fail him and just for a second maybe, just maybe, she would come closer to him instead. _

_But fate is no merciful monster and suddenly the sight of heaven slips like water from his grasp – so easily, so quickly. While his tears endlessly leak, the fatigue finally had caught the best of him and slowly his eyes fell shut, lips murmuring the same word; the same plea. _

"_Mother…!"_

* * *

_I could end everything here and yet, why can't I do it?_

* * *

The first thing Add registers when his eyes open is the cold feeling of water running down from his lashes onto his cheek. His mind is still hazy from a long dream (a dream he can't seem to remember) and his body is somewhat tucked underneath a blanket, lying against a soft and comfortable mattress. Strangely there is just a twinge of pain on his left chest, but the throbbing in his head was sorer than that. Clearing his throat, he swivelled his head to the side and came into contact with a small engine pressed against his cheek.

"Kuh…?"

The next thing he processes is the fact that his nasod dynamo was spread around his head in a matter similar to nuzzling, placed into sleep mode onto the pillow. The motion itself was slightly odd, he notes. Although, whether it was a programmed reaction he forgot about or a simple bug within the system, he can deal with it. It was oddly endearing, he numbly thought, noticing the way the heat sensor had turned itself on to warm his head.

Finding some sort of strength – why does he feel so incredibly _drained _– he manages to push himself away from the mattress and sit at an upright position. For once his left eye doesn't gleam the ominous lilac; it maintained the same effect as the other. He also doesn't collapse into a fit of devious chuckles nor cynical comments; something he found a little bit weird himself.

Pressing a palm against his face, he rubbed it while he pushed back his fringe in an attempt to rid of the drowsiness. Add finds everything that had happened over the past few hours a complete blur. The only thing that remains somewhat clear in his mind was when the day started after he only slept for around thirty minutes after a thirty-six hour all-nighter and the he had gone to fetch some samples. After that, the samples were ridiculously frustrating to obtain and then there was a miscalculation on a move….

"Keh, that's right. Stupid piece of trash, stinging me with poison," he grunted, raking a hand in his hair. "Though, that doesn't explain how I got here…"

He looked around. The room was dim sans the small amount of light slipping through the curtains and only contained a wardrobe pressed against the far right corner, a bedside table to his left and a plain painting of a tree framed on the wall. The walls were slightly dusty and had little cracks in the corners, but aside from that it was slightly damp and moist.

Must be a little over dawn, he concludes to himself.

As his brain finally starts working, he starts to remember the chain of events. Against his own will the Nasod Queen had taken him into a huge detour from where they were meant to go (if he knew, that is) and somehow landed him back to where he started off; Elder. Then somewhere along the line he was dragged around on her stupid drone – if he bothered to tell the difference, he presumes it was one called Moby or whatever – and fell unconscious.

Fuck. How ridiculous. He could've used that time to run a few more experiments using animals as test subjects.

Grumbling, he jolted his arm only to feel a very tight grip locked onto his left wrist. Widening his eyes, he turned to the source and had found an abundance of silver hair spread across the side with two drones resting in the mass. Upon closer look, he found the Nasod Queen with her eyes shut and mouth slightly open, head tilted and lying on her left arm with the other holding the lunatic's wrist.

"What the fuck?" he muttered to himself while he tried to loosen the grip by wriggling out of it but failing in the process. He furrowed his brow. Why on earth was she holding him down? "Are you awake, Queen? Let go of me."

No response.

He narrowed his eyes while he tried to pry his wrist out from the metallic fingers, but it was all too tight. The grip was well-secured and it didn't seem like it was going to let up any time soon.

Add pursed his lips. This is stupid. First of all she drags him onto some stranger's house and then she has a death lock strapped onto his wrist? What was he, a dog? That thought offended him. This queen actually might be thinking he was some kind of dog or pet to her just like those drones of hers – which, by the way, _does _look like a pet than her 'servant' – and he was certainly not anyone's pet. Sure, he could deal with the term _co-worker _because that implies he gets something out of it; but not _pet_.

Gritting his teeth, he stares at her. His eyes wonder up to the blue jewel framed so perfectly on her forehead with the help of her fringe. The blue blares right at him and a smirk curves his lips. "How thoughtful of you, Nasod Queen, for you to leave yourself out open like this."

Of course! He didn't have to work under her orders – who says? The Nasod core is all he needed; that sacred El. Why let himself be whipped by a queen's control when he could just so easily snatch his freedom back so simply? Cackles rumble in his throat as he used his free hand to reach for the blue gem.

Yes, that's right. "Kuhakhahakha," a twisted laugh sings from his lips. "Finally, _finally… _Oh~I have you now, _queen_…"

He could finally accomplish that goal he had been striving so hard to achieve. The queen would also be quiet enough so no one could suspect a thing – even her drones were immobile. There would be no useless fighting, there would be no resisting. He could simply use her jewel as a power source and finally obtain the solution – the perfect time travel machine. If he had that thing in his hands he could easily build up a machine and bam;

Mother would be still alive after he changes the past_. _The scene could not get any more perfect in his favour.

_Yet._

The smirk had dropped from his lips without him even realizing. The fingers never reached the jewel. Instead, they brushed against the silver lock of hair that he pushed to the side while he traces the outline of the diamond on her cheek with his thumb. There is a bit of a small smear of a green substance that he doesn't recognise painted on her surface which makes him wince a bit in disgust while he wipes it elsewhere on the sheets. Otherwise, there was no reaction. He simply brings his hand back to himself and grips the fabric of blanket.

_Why can't I fucking do it?_

He grits his teeth while he pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration. Add finds this ridiculous. Why can't he just take her stupid core, probably dissect her in that process too and use that to update his dynamo? He was so _fucking __**close **_this time and it is one of the only times he could probably be _**this **_close to attaining his goal –

So _why can't he __**touch **__her?_

At first he thinks that maybe because he's still just a little bit drowsy (because it _was _just a little bit over dawn) and he still had yet to fully waken himself up. But then that's when it truly hits him: hadn't he gone through this circumstance once before?

_When the Nasod Queen had collapsed from system breaching in his arms just before he had dealt the finishing Particle Accel, _the old voice in his mind whispered accusingly, _you had __**every **__opportunity to just take her core and abandon her. _

That's right. He _did _have every opportunity.

_You were just like this_, the voice continued as Add shivered, his teeth gritting, _reluctant. Wasn't your mother above everything else? You even thought about how __**satisfying **__it would feel to rip the queen into pieces; to have her into fragments while you hold the prize in your hands. _

He lets out a strangled breath while his mind becomes disarray.

_**So why didn't you?**_

"Fuck off," he hisses to no one in particular. But it was a valid argument. Why _didn't _he indeed? Instead he had decided to go through extra lengths, using some of the nasod pieces he had stored within a magical data base in his nasod to refurnish her. Even going as far as to hack into her system and unlocking her Q-Proto_00 code, making sure she would have some access to the Queen's Throne. He also went through another set of special measures to make tweak her sensors and advance those old combat system data, re-writing it to fit a queen like herself.

Why would you go through such ways to make sure the El in her system was secured safer than it was?

He sinks back into the sheets and buries himself in his (dynamo) heated pillow. Add could only face one direction, and that was either his left or the ceiling –

And to his own surprise, his body moves quicker than his brain and he slants to the former. He falls to a half lidded stare while he lets his eyes fall as he focuses on the little sounds of Eve's sleep engine lulling him to sleep.

"It's so my stupid equation doesn't go to fucking waste," he mumbles. "That's all there is to it."

That is the only reason why, he (_believes_) states. Add doesn't like to waste his hard work – especially after countless hours of working with numbers (Calculus will forever be a _bitch_) and physics (the study of time travel and making sense of it along with the concepts of magic was still a mouthful) and finding extracts to be suitable enough to be his power source – therefore to just take the easy way out of it would have meant his efforts have been pointless.

(But if the he had used the core and fixed things _already _he wouldn't have to worry about wasting time.)

He grunts as his eyes shut. For some reason he feels incredibly exhausted despite only being up for less than an hour; both mentally and physically. On the issue of why he didn't take her codes he decides to forget (_push it aside_) and focuses on other things. Like the time travel code.

"You should be thankful," he murmurs, "To me for choosing to spare you, Eve."

Then sleep swallows him whole.

* * *

Add - Tracer - Time Tracer (In Progress)

Eve - Another Code - Code:Exotic

_Wooh! Another chapter done. To be honest I'm not so sure how long I'm aiming for WBCM to go? I was initially planning it to be six chapters long but due to ideas changing and more forming I'm kind of left at a rough estimation of 10-12. But that really depends on my patience, I had the basic story down and all I need to do was to continue forming ideas to go with it. By the way, did you notice the cover? If you did, I'm really happy because I spent a long time drawing that out on Photoshop with only a touch pad (the one on a laptop, the mouse) as a tool ;; I don't have a tablet..._

_Add's insanity is incredibly mellowed out here. I haven't gotten to the brunt of it yet, actually. When he gets to DE that's when I'm going to go ALL OUT with a surprise twist hidden in the scene. _

_I'll take a bit of a break; school's been bustin' my ass lately and writers block is sort of starting to plague me - but no worries. I haven't run out of juice yet! Besides, if I did, I can just read some more fics to satiate my thirst for ideas. Also lately some of my other fandoms are starting to drag me back and my K-Idol ships are starting to take over my life... (KRISLU, BAEKSOO, SEKAI, TAEKEY, JONGHO ARE ALL MY LOVE AND LIFE SHIPS) _

**Reviewer Reply Time!**

**To SuzukaMizuchi: **Those characters are actually my favourite. I love the way they develop, whether for the better or the worse. My lil' trash babes hehe...I'll try my best to keep updating, thank you for your support!

**To Siilver Phantom: **THANKS! The Add dying part was actually fun to write (dodges arrows from my 'association of victims') AHAH! I was never a big fan of PVP no matter what game because I swell up in anxiety and whenever I lose I feel really ashamed hhh. Looking for secret dungeons seem to be interesting (if they have a funny dialogue box at the end). Thanks for your support, I appreciate it! I'll take your feedback in mind about the lengths of a chapter.

**To Sky-of-Silver-Lining: **Congratulations on becoming a time warden! Ooooh, good luck on making a MasterMind! I wish you all the best with your quest. That's a great idea to do both - I was never motivated enough to make two of the same class (unless you're talking about maple then...I'm a 100% hypocrite.) Thanks for your support! I'll take your feedback in mind about the lengths of a chapter.

**To Solera: **Thanks for stopping by my story and reading it! It makes me really happy. NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE SHIP DE AND THE OTHER TWO EVES orz As much as I _love _DE x CBS I love mixing things up a bit which makes one of the reasons why DE x CN is my otp instead of LP/CN or DE/CBS. Hope you continue to support me! I'll take your feedback in mind about the lengths of a chapter.

**To Babylon1914: **(dances around in the confetti) Whee~ Thanks for always looking forward to my new chapters, I'll try my best to keep you happy and entertained!

**To BlackDeadCat: **I'll take your feedback in mind about the lengths of a chapter, thank you for stopping by!

**To DigiSinister: **I'll take your feedback in mind about the lengths of a chapter, it's really helpful. I personally can't bear to wait which is why I don't mind, but I like it medium, hehe. ...  
My Maple OTP? (Sweats really hard, starts walking to the nearest trash can) don't worry I'm already heading to where I belong...it's ... _Zero Alpha x Zero Beta. _(climbs in the trashcan) I already know...please don't hurt me... (closes trash lid, muffled speaking) but i can't help the heart...

**To Encendrel: **It's such an honour for you to stop by my fanfic, I'm so greatful. Thank you for stopping by and reading my story! I'm glad you think the way I handle making game fanfiction is well.  
Maple Talk: MAPLE HELL IS REAL HELL THAT I CAN'T ESCAPE. I didn't know Phantom had extra lines (cracks knuckles) I might do the first act again on him then. But getting to Act 5 will be a pain, there is only one character I can get through the entire thing without crying blood. Ah..should really fund all my characters...Still, I'm pretty buried in the PC x Orchid ship because when he said,  
"..I trust you." and "Do you trust me now?" to her I died. Those lines are all I need in life...  
Good luck with your faf weapon, pray to god it doesn't boom. Holy crap, those scrolls are expensive (300 coins each!) and I'm too broke to buy leaves. I don't need it much anyway, my Lapis/Lazuli (because I main Zero) is alright as it is. On the other hand I may need to prime my faf knuckle for my Buccaneer mule...Sigh, all that work and Evo-labbing is going to make my fingers bleed like Elsword does.

(coughs) I'm actual Maple trash...

**And to all those who have followed and favourited my story: you guys make me so happy. I am really happy everyday to feel support from knowing that you guys read my fanfic and liked it! It gives me so much energy to continue. Please continue to support me and I'll do my best to make you all happy!**

Mesti (CrimsonSky47)


	5. Stubbornness (Monochrome)

_**A/N:**_I'm going to apologize for all the mistakes that's probably going to show up, sorry I was a bit lazy to proof-check it because the time I'm publishing this is one of the ungodly hours of the night (so aka 3-5am) and I stayed up just so I can finish this chapter...Anyway, this was the chapter I was talking about with the whole clothing thing. They finally change their clothes in this chapter hehe. Made an excuse for whatever reason it is, hope that's okay with you guys. I'll OOC the NPC's because i'm too tired to double check and lately I haven't had the stength - or will - to play the game to check...sorry guys...

A long chapter - 5.7k words - for you guys because you all rock and it's to make up for how short the last was, hahaha. sorry if this doesn't appeal to your standards...;; i'm really tired wow

More notes on the bottom.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Add, Eve, Elsword. They belong to KoG and Nexon. I only own the fanfiction and idea.**

* * *

_Will you let your stubborness kill you?_

* * *

**MODE: ON**

**SYSTEMS BOOTING… 100% COMPLETE.**

**DATA LOADING….**

**SYSTEM CALLIBRATION COMPLETE. NO DAMAGES OVER IDLE TIME. MEMORY LOADED.**

As Eve's eyes fluttered open, she slowly lifted her head from her arms and was met with a blue screen. While her body was still in the process of awakening after her slumber, the feed in her system slowly registered the information while she read onwards on what the blue screen previewed. Her lips open to a subtle 'o' as she read onwards; there were the same symbols and diagrams as per usual – with the words 'Centripetal Force', 'Gravitational Pull of Henir Axis and the fissures of time' outlined in bold – printed in small font. However to her surprise there weren't as many as usual.

In fact, there were only three screens glowing. One with a lengthy report which was by her face and an experiment record slightly further away. In the middle of it all, was strange image of a Christmas tree –

…Actually, upon closer inspection, it was just twelve males positioned like one. She raised an eyebrow.

"Would you look at that," a gruff voice distracted her from her thoughts, catching her attention. While she turned to her right she was met with a pair of irritated irises, looking at her with obvious disdain. "Sleeping Beauty finally woke up. Here I thought I would lose blood circulation on my hand."

Propped against the headboard, Add had his purple headphones placed over his ears with his Dynamo floated idly behind him. His hair was still messily tousled with curls and tangles tied at the top of his head; a terrible case of bed hair. Blinking, she looked down to her hand and had found her fingers clasped around his wrist tightly, with her thumb pressing against the hem of his palm. Widening her eyes, she slowly released it and brought her hands together on her lap, leaning back to sit up.

He pinched the fabric of the glove and pulled it out, revealing a pale hand. As he shook it, colour slowly returned with redness tinting his skin. It was the first time Eve had witnessed seeing Add's hand – he had usually hidden it behind the glove for as long as she remembered. It wasn't very big, nor was it very small; just the average size she deducted from her little memory on human body parts. Although she could outline the slender, thin fingers with neatly cut nails at the brim. He had little bumps of the bends of bone clinging tightly to each finger, with small veins tinting a small miniscule blue line within the pale skin. They were smooth, soft and pristine...however there were small highlights of healed scars and burns lingering on skin.

She made a mental note of that, hiding it far into her storage.

Before she could further analyse his hand, he had already began to slip the glove back on. There was a small bubble of disappointment rising within her but she shoved it down, hiding it away – why on Elrios would she care about his hand anyway?

Add continued to be quiet, surprisingly. He seemed quite melancholic in stark contrast to his usual routine of breaking into laughter or a fit of dark chuckles. Watching his finger press against the blue screen, the queen noted that there was a list of strange titles with abstract icons beside them. Absentmindedly choosing one that said 'My Lady' accompanied by a picture of a white and blue lined image that said XOXO with a heart and a circle beneath it, he shut his eyes and hummed.

"What's that?" she said, watching him. He cracked an eye open and shrugged.

"It's called _music_," he replied blankly, swiping the windows away. "Human entertainment. Nothing a Nasod would be interested in."

Offended, she opened her mouth to respond before she was cut off at the sight of Add undressing the white short-sleeved jacket off. "What are you doing?" she asked, her eyes widening in alarm.

"I fucking stink as hell," he grunted, taking hold of the hem of his shirt. "Smells like shit and sweat. Revolting."

Before she knew it, he had already brought the hem above his head, exposing his upper half. He wasn't very bulky or very skinny by per means (sure, the days before he had taken in the antidote by resuscitation probably) and in fact, quite the opposite in what she expected. While he _was _indeed a skinny male, there was a light tone of muscle around his torso outlined by some curves in his skin. There were also quite evident scars that scraped his body across, plus some noticeable stitches that look a couple of years old. The choker around his neck suddenly looked more noticeable with the dark red outline across his neck, and finally there was a number burned into his collar: 21.

"I would really appreciate if you could hide your voyeurism a lot more, Queen," Add spat sardonically. He smirked. "A lady of royalty is ought to have some manners, no?"

The queen's facial sensors overheated while she averted her eyes. "Silence, human," she weakly retorted. "How vile! Undressing in front of a woman like myself."

His little twisted chuckle echoed in her feed as she heard more shuffling before she heard his feet make contact with the wooden flooring. Peeking through the corner of her eye, she found him wearing just that short-sleeved jacket on, buttoned up with the short hanging on his forearm. "This house better have some kind of laundry room or some shit. If not, I'll destroy it."

"Is that any way to treat a place you were able to stay overnight in instead of the wilderness," Eve replied bluntly, standing up. In that instant, her drones powered on and started to hover around her, swaying around to calibrate their systems. "You should treat Ms. Echo more respect."

"Respect isn't in my code of how the fuck I work; I was so sure you knew that already."

Following the Nasod to the door, Add idly took a brush from the side rest and brushed down the tangles. His fringe had grown over the past few months and some strands had started to cover his line of vision much to his annoyance. Making a mental note to cut it sometime, he ran a hand down his locks and continued.

Before Eve's hand could ever make it near the door knob, it opened quite meekly. The silver pair raised an eyebrow while they took a step back and allowed the door to be carefully pushed forward slowly, a sound of rattling china audible in their ears. A small figure walked in holding a tray compiled with some toast with condiments of jam and butter placed on it, two glasses of juice rattling as small hands struggled to keep it together. A muffled whine escaped their lips while they held it up towards the two.

"Good morning!" Echo greeted. Eve bended down and took the tray away from her to her gratitude, placing it over by the dresser. Add only stared at the little girl, staring down and eying her as if she was a rare specimen. He placed a finger on his chin and continued to stare, much for Echo's discomfort.

"You look healthy today, boy," she grinned uneasily, reaching for her back pocket to pull out a lollipop. Her eyes drifted to his left chest straight after, frowning while she took the wrapper off the sweet and placed it in her mouth. "However, the poison seems to remain there and stagnant…It seems like we would need to take further measure."

"Hold on," Add waved his hand out to stop her. "Are you implying that you're the one who cured me?"

She nodded eagerly, a big and bright smile running across her lips. "Of course! It was none other than I, the Alchemist of Elder, Echo!" she puffed out her chest and dabbed it with a fist.

The lunatic's expression turned deadpan as he stared down, unconvinced. "Right," he drawled, shrugging. "Okay, _Oh great Alchemist_, what is this further measure you're talking about?"

Oblivious to his mocking tone and the exchange of glares from the silver pair, the alchemist simple chewed on the sweet and pondered in thought. "Let's see, those dynamo of yours are connected to you through your pulse which has a sensor implanted around the surface, right? The sensor was placed through magic liberties and can be controlled through the brain."

Add widened his eyes and flinched quite visibly, his nasod dynamo rotating dangerously around him. His eye flickered and he gritted his teeth, his expression darkening. "Ha, you're a pretty smart shrimp," he said in a low, threatening tone. "Did you do something to me while Eve was idle? How the fuck do you know that?"

"I'm an alchemist," she replied simply, folding her arms. "An alchemist's eyes are better than a hawk's. I have little knowledge in robotics, but I am an ace for magic capabilities!"

There was a spark of magnetism Before Add could probably lash out and destroy his only source of recovering from his state, Eve stood in between the two of them, shoving him backwards roughly that left him stumbling. "What the fuck," he cursed, glaring at the queen. "The hell do you want now, queen? She wasn't talking to you."

"As someone of higher ground than you," she gave him a cold look, "Shut your mouth. You will listen to Ms. Echo and follow her instructions and recover, understood?"

"Why the fuck do I have to listen to y—"

She took his shirt in her fist and leaned closely enough for the gem in her forehead to dig into his. Boring her amber into his periwinkle, he swallowed thickly at the intensity. "_Understood_?" she repeated firmly. Sighing heavily, he nods reluctantly and Eve releases her grip, turning her heel and taking a step away. "Why the fuck didn't I just take her codes then," he muttered under his breath while he leaned down to eye level with the squirt. "Okay, what the fuck do I have to do?"

"Simple. Do you have a safety chip from another high-profile Nasod? If you don't," Echo pulled the lollipop out and tapped it on her bottom lip, "I think there's a stupid guy called Wally in the castle who has a robot we can use. But a group of youngsters like you said they were going after him, so I don't know if that thing is still intact."

_Youngsters?_ Add thought for a moment before digging into his pocket and pulled out a chip that had 'Wally Number 8' engraved above the rim. Echo and Eve stared at in curiosity much to his annoyance. "I worked with that bastard to find her-"he pointed his thumb lazily towards the queen, "-and as a punishment for betraying me by lying to me about the location of the Altera Core, I destroyed his prized robot and accepted my prize of his rare components. This good enough?"

With doe eyes the alchemist inspected the chip carefully, smoothing her fingers over the copper. Humming and nodding to herself, she turned back at Add – no, his dynamo. "Yes, this is perfect. Now all you have to do is leave me to work with your Dynamo for today."

Silence.

"_What the fuck?_" the lunatic widened his eyes, almost looking offended from the mere request. "Like hell am I ever going to give you my dynamo! Who do you think you _are_?"

Even Eve looked slightly discomforted by the instruction. If cases they were attacked on site and despite, of course, having splendid and top notch combat ability there was always the lingering doubt of becoming able to succeed without the assistance of Add's dynamo. Add was always a more experienced and rather good tactician as much as Eve hated to absolutely admit. She could not have been able to survive this far on her own if she didn't at least have a bit of the lunatic's assistance – even for the tiniest errand.

However, Echo had proven her trustworthiness by choosing to help Add without pay and if her image were to play a part, she didn't seem to be the type that would understand the basic fundamentals of Nasod terminology. The tracer would probably be ashamed instead of the queen, for that matter. Not to mention the alchemist was right in saying about the poison still lingering in his body; her x-ray cameras can detect the increase in heat and suspicious infection hanging around his chest. Although it's being countered by the antidote, there is still a high chance that it won't last long and he'll be back in a death bed.

They can't take that risk. _She _can't take that risk.

"Add," she started softly and carefully, "Listen to her. She will just adjust the chip into the dynamo to help you—"

"_FUCK THAT_," he roared, slamming his fist against the dresser hard enough to cause the glass to just _barely _remain stable. "I can't listen to that fucking bullshit any longer. I am _not _giving you my Eldamn dynamo. Never."

Of course, Add was still stubborn as ever. But case in point: had Echo asked the queen for Moby and Remy instead the chances of her disagreeing was above 75% too. He had a very good reason to not give it so easily: if any case Echo screws up any sort of coding or reprogramming the data of the work the two have gone through over the months could be deleted in its entirety. Not to mention the power strength and magic infusion forced upon the nasod metal was no joke – if it were to break, so would Add's combat ability in it's whole.

Judging from the scars she had seen earlier, it was safe to assume Add had spent most of his life making the dynamo. He will not relent.

Echo seemed distressed too, chewing harder onto the top of the lollipop. However, she took a deep breath and took on a very serious expression on her face. "I am an alchemist, skilled and have been at this job for more years than you can probably estimate," her voice was strong and firm, nothing like her a few seconds ago – more reminiscent of her of the night before. "I assure you and have many people to vouch for me that _I will not fail_ and I _will __**save **__your __**life**__._ You just have to believe me."

"I will not give it to you," he repeated with venom. "My dynamo is a basis of my fucking _existence_. There is _nothing _that will make me give it to you for even a fucking _minute_."

She took a careful breath and stood her ground.

"_Would you rather lose to your __**mortality **__and die so __**regretfully**_?"

His irises widened as the words reverberated in his head. All of a sudden he felt a cold chill run down his spine while the words seeped into his mind – his body remembering the vivid fear of being so _close _to death's embrace. How could he be so pathetic, so simply being reduced to nothing but this? Life is so fucking cruel to him, he thought in both rage and despair.

Why had the threads of fate led him to such a standstill like this?

Staring down at the little girl who looked decades beyond her age, he gritted his teeth and cursed everything, shrieking in absolute hatred. Eve was startled by the reaction, Moby and Remy conducting a battle stance while she rushed protectively in front of Echo, who took a step back in caution. There was a magnetic spark all around the male followed by the rumbling of the flooring, his dynamo going berserk while releasing a flurry of purple and black around him. Before Eve could send a command for her drones, the upcoming destruction was halted so suddenly she fell back on her bottom.

When she looked up however, she noticed the incredibly pained and despair-ridden expression Add wore beneath his fringe. All of a sudden he looked _so _tired that she couldn't find a single word to say.

"I'll give you two hours," he mumbled, hoarse with distraught and conflict. "If you destroy everything I've lived for, I'll make sure you _**regret **_even _**looking **_at me."

Echo nodded profusely, holding her hand out to take the dynamo which hovered into her arms. Her eye twitched in pain as the sparks burned in her skin, but she forced a grin and made her way out of the room. Distracted by the little girl's retreating figure, Eve was suddenly pulled back up to her feet and shoved against a wall, two fingers holding her chin and forced to look at an eerie glowing pair of purple eyes.

"If _I _have to give up my only source of protection," he hissed, his hot breath mingling with hers. She shivered. "_You _have to do it too. We are on _equal _grounds, queen. If I have to suffer, you do too."

Before she could consider shoving him away, there was something in the orbs that reminded her of the day they had met. Within the lilac was glassy and incredibly broken that she couldn't find the words to disagree. Nodding slowly, she averted her eyes to the side, signalling the two drones to follow after Echo despite the close proximity. After they had completely disappeared off sight, Add released her and retreated back, still looking remotely pissed off but there was some sort of satisfaction in his expression as he folded his arms and tossing the shirt he was holding back on the bed.

"Since we have two fucking hours to kill," he sneered, "we should explore this stupid town. I need new clothes to buy anyway and I'm pretty sick of seeing you wear that ugly outfit anyway, so accompany me."

She doesn't know whether to feel inclined or offended.

* * *

_White is not fitting for someone who creates destruction abound._

* * *

As they venture out into Elder with permission from Echo, they find that the town – as small as it was – bustling with people. Friendly smiles and greetings are passed around with the fresh breeze and sunshine wrapping around them, even her feed felt remotely satisfied. Strolling by the path, she glanced by her companion. He wore his headphones on his ears with the same angry expression darkening his face, effectively scaring the bystanders abound. Feeling the need to converse in a topic, she opened her mouth to say something only to be cut-off by the abrupt stop in their stroll.

Following his gaze, she found that it led to trades store just a bit further along the path. There were many items on display: such as various strange accessories like eye patches and cat ears. Odd sparkling round metals encased in square plastic packaging were also displayed, with similar images on the cover as to the picture she saw earlier when she woke. Clothes seemed to be residing further in the shop, her camera deduced, therefore this seemed to be the perfect shop.

Trudging onwards, they were met by a girl with low twin tails wearing an abundance of bracelets on her wrists and a strange droopy hat adorning her head. She wore a bright smile as Eve caught her eye while they walked into the shop, staring at the items up for sale.

"Welcome, welcome! This is the one and only Luichel's shop!" she greeted, gesturing to all the shelves filled with clothes and miscellaneous items. "How can I help you two today, sir and madam?"

Add seemed to disregard her presence, only staring at the plain white jacket hanging off the mannequin. He was eying it quite carefully too, running his fingers down the sleeve and pursing his lips carefully in thought. Before Eve could ask what he was doing, she was cut off (once _again_) by the clerk who cheerfully approached him. "Hello good sir! My, you have a great eye for good items don'tcha!"

"This is a DNA co-ordinating design coat, isn't it?" he asked blankly, looking quite annoyed by the boisterous clothes. She nodded eagerly in response, snatching the jacket off her hands and placing it on his shoulder.

"Indeed it is! Just wear it once and it'll design itself based on what you wore last _or _what type of clothing you constantly wear!"

Almost as instant when it came contact with Add's skin, the jacket's fabric became a more purplish white colour. The hood grew a pair of fabricated cat ears and indigo lining painted itself across from the shoulder down the sleeve, which developed some sort of a more round and puffy shape. The length of the jacket shortened itself to reach to just below his chest, and the zipper grew in size. As a final touch, the power switch embodiment printed itself on his side. It was very reminiscent of the previous palette of clothes he was wearing before; only a different type of accessory.

He smirked. "This is actually perfect," he grinned playfully at his reflection. Add pulled off a shirt of similar fabric off the counter and watched it turn into the same dark indigo colour with iris coloured designs morphing by the sides of the shirt. Once again, it looked very identical to the shirt he had left back at Echo's home.

Taking a pair of skinny jeans and some rather robotic looking boots, he escaped into the fitting room, leaving Eve to herself.

Unknown what to do, she made her way towards what seemed to be the women's section of the store. There were many outfits with different designs; her taste in clothing was very slack therefore she had absolutely _no _idea what to choose. Back in the Nasod Kingdom she had most of her servants choose her appropriate attire and more often they had spawned a much larger variety than the ones she sees in front of her. She had never objected to whatever she wore, believing that the good of the kingdom was more worth than something as petty as clothing choice. Thinking back, it would have been able if she had learned to decline a type of outfit.

Although, then again, why did it matter what she chose anyway?

"_I'm pretty sick of seeing you wear that ugly outfit anyway."_

Her system overheated with anger. How _dare _he insult a queen in such a way?

The queen needed an outfit that fitted a queen like herself. She admits that the one she wore completely lacked royal appeal. Hence the whole 'ugly' part of the statement. So she would need an outfit that would satiate his need – to _not _get sick of her wearing it every day. Besides, even Eve herself felt obliged to change; she felt as if she should have done this a while ago, probably after her system coding had changed thanks to Add's interference.

But the question was, where should she start?

"Oh my, aren't you that boy's girlfriend?" her feed caught the voice of the annoying clerk. As she turned around, she came face to face with a large toothy grin that grinded her gears, just a bit. "Why, you and that boy look like quite the matching couple."

"He is **not **my suitor," she vehemently denied.

"Suitor? Are you perhaps a queen of some sort? Golly gosh, if that's the case, I shall help you find a dress that would suit royalty such as yourself," the clerk smiled, tugging onto Eve. Before she could reject the offer, she found herself tumbling into an abundance of clothing racks filled with silk dresses varying in length of the skirt. The designs consist of either full of ribbons or frills, a large supply of corsets and quite suffocating collars – there were many that she found uncomfortable wearing. For the first time in her entire data record she had found distaste in whatever she wore.

(That may be a part of the strange additional factor Add planted in her. Damn him sometimes.

…This time wasn't one of them.)

"Hmm, I think I found the perfect one!" Luchiel singsongs, pulling out one more dress out of the rack while Eve lies in a pile of discarded dresses. The queen looks up in some sort of exhaustion before her eyes widen and her cameras zoom into the fabric.

The dress was short, only reaching up to her thighs. There was a bright blue gem adorning the centre lined with a gold frame with a square printed beneath it. It was sleeveless, and at the top was lined in black where skin met the dress. At the skirt were the same two jewels, brilliantly azure and framed with gold shaped like small swords – looking similar to the design printed on the sleeves of her current outfit. The collar had a ribbon and a bell woven at the centre, plus there were two attachable sleeves that reached up to her shoulder as well.

"I call it 'Electra'," the clerk hums in satisfaction as she brings over to next to her, looking back and forth from the dress to her. "Yep! The jewel on your head matches the jewel on this perfectly. Try it!"

Nodding, she slowly slipped out of her attire and into the dress. It was surprisingly comfortable and easy to move around which was incredibly helpful since they often undergo many battles. It reminded her of some of the outfits she had back when the castle was still intact, and it sort of made her feel as if she was a princess again. A ghost of a smile forms on her lips while she exits the fitting room in order to prove the one person who told her that her dressing sense was horrid wrong.

As she saw his new jacket blaring by a case of discs, she stopped regained her composure. Coughing to get his attention, she straightened her back and stared at him.

"Add."

He didn't turn around instantly, wearing his headphones in his ears while he looked at the disc with mild interest. She tapped her foot and tried again.

"Add."

Finally hearing her voice, the smile dropped from his lips while he turned around to see her, his eyes widening. Slipping the headphones down to his neck, he stared at her from head to toe.

"Well," she started, folding her arms. Closing her eyes and puffing out her chest, she spoke haughtily. "Does this suit your taste now? Actually, it is more worth to hear whatever apology you have to offer to know that you were wrong. Now I don't look so ugly now do I?"

She received a silence in response. Cracking an eye open, she found that he wasn't wearing an impressed expression. Quite the opposite, actually; his eyebrow was raised and one half of his lips were curved to display some sort of distaste and disbelief. Raising her own eyebrow, she started to feel offended for such a reaction. "What is it?"

"It doesn't suit you."

Silence.

A part of her gears malfunctioned for a moment. "Excuse me?"

He sighed heavily and placed the disc – there was a picture of a light blue scene with bubbles streaming from the top, resembling an underwater scene with the words 'Odd' printed in red as a large contrast – back on the shelf and approached her. "It _really_ doesn't suit you," he snickered while he tugged her arm much gentler (though still quite harshly) than the clerk had done before. Leading her to the section again, he looked across from the options and picked one. Tossing it to her abruptly, he placed a hand on his hip and pointed the other towards the fitting room.

"Try it on."

Disgruntled, she forced herself to move to the changing room. Slamming the curtain shut, she hanged the dress on the hook and eyed it suspiciously.

The dress was longer, reaching up to her ankles this time. It was much larger in the skirt area with a small bloated roundness that were similar to the ones she's tried on before (they were called ball gown dresses, apparently) although the colour palette no longer consisted of a white colour. It held a more monochromatic theme; the overall outer layer was black while the inner was white. The skirt had buttons at the centre of each frill almost reminding her of a drone. The black frills opened at the centre to reveal a white skirt with a pink line by the edge of the fabric. Lace crisscrossed over it, and the sleeves were once again detachable much like the previous one she wore.

Reading the tag, it said 'Exotic' in comparison to her current 'Electra'.

Begrudgingly slipping it on, she actually found the dress _much _more comfortable than Electra: while Electra's short skirt let her move freely, it was quite tight, but Exotic's skirt was long and free. She twirled around and couldn't help but notice the way the colour palette resembled Moby and Remy quite closely.

_Is this what he meant by it suits?_ She thought to herself.

Walking out the door (she slipped on the matching black boots she saw on the way to the fitting room), she saw Add smirking quite expectantly. He had a plastic bag with their previous clothes on hanging from his left hand while he leaned against a shelf, once again looking at her from head to toe.

"See? Told you it suits more," he shrugged, snickering. She felt her gears grind.

"Why does it suit more?"

"You're really naïve, aren't you, Eve?" he said slyly, approaching her. Taking her wrist and spinning her around to face the mirror, he placed a hand on that sensitive spot by her waist; stilling her. Trailing his fingers up her side, she felt her system run faster while he whispered by her left sensor, the smirk on his lips taunting her through the reflection. "Because you are a queen of destruction. White portrays innocence when clearly a queen like you is everything _but _innocent."

"How can you prove that," she replied, trying to pry her hand away from his grip, but failing due to his other hand pressing all her sensitive spots by her side. Her reply even came out weak and shaky, how _humiliating_.

He chuckled twistedly as he released her, watching her shrivel to the floors and clutching herself. Picking up his footsteps she turned her head slowly and saw him going back to the shelf filled with the discs while giving her a side eye glance. "My eyes don't miss the way your expression brightens upon the sight of an enemy gravelling before you," he said, taking up another cover that had a black background and a gold diamond on the front. "My eyes are always on you."

She felt a part of her sensor run cold at that accusation, but she kept her silence.

If a queen of destruction was she was seen to be, then let it be. So long as it's for her people she doesn't care.

(But the title….how enlightening it was to hear that she was a woman of destruction. Fitting for a queen like herself.)

* * *

As they made their way back (Add was completely keeping in touch of the time, he wasn't going to give the shrimp a single _minute _above the limit) they burst through the door open disregarding any sort of manners. Moby and Remy came rushing towards the queen with worry, nuzzling against her cheek and spinning in excitement around her as they witnessed the change in attire.

"_SQUIRT!_ GIVE ME BACK MY DYNAMO!" Add shouted, looking around. He ran across the room seeking long and hard for the hovering device(s) and was about to break down everything in the room until his eyes caught sight of a floating machine. Quickly running towards it, he was met up with a strange looking set of six hovering devices; with white points from the top and the bottom only joined together by a rectangular centre piece that had the power symbol engraved on the centre of it.

He was surprisingly entranced and awed by the device. "Is this my dynamo…?" he mumbled, watching it hover around him just like his dynamo would. He motioned for the hover board command and they joined together, following orders as per usual. Standing on it, he went around the room and smiled in glee, noting the slight increase in speed. "Holy shit, it's really my dynamo! Haha! Perfect!"

Echo emerged from the door, biting on her lollipop as per usual. "I have changed their appearance to fit the safety device. Also, I noticed the data you had stored and they were all information on dimension travelling, correct?"

The two simultaneously nod. Add didn't seem as bothered as before.

"I have adapted them to fit the experiment conditions more. It should withstand dimension hopping and space cracking now."

Eve is not exaggerating when she looks at Add and witnesses sparkles floating out of his eyes while he looks from the alchemist and to his dynamo. He was quite animated with his expressions when he's happy, shrieking in glee while he checks out completed time travel equations and perfect standards. His expression becomes ecstatic once he reads out a new formula for 'Nasod Armour' and he jumps for joy when the magnetism rate had been increased, sparking out strong waves of purple around them.

"Kuku…Who knew I could get this much help from a little kid," he laughed; the same old twisted and insane laughter. "With this completed…not even time can escape my powers!"

While Echo retreated back into her room as he laughed, Eve felt her own throat bubble with laughter too. She let out a small chuckle that sounded a little close to the way Add laughs, until her feed registers the sound and she stops almost immediately. What was she doing? She shouldn't be laughing.

(Yet.)

As Add heads for the door, he looks back at the queen expectantly. She flinches in surprise.

"What? We're not done yet, of course, queen," he smirked. "We have to find the perfect extract to act as a power source first."

While she followed him out, with his back turned, her own lips curved into her own little twisted smirk too.

* * *

Add - Tracer - Time Tracer

Eve - Another:Code - Code: Exotic

_I'm so tired...Lately I've been reliving some old KPOP things. Speaking of which, did you see the references? Hehe, basically the song Add was listening to at the start was My Lady by EXO which was part of their XOXO repackage album. It was my absolute favourite from that album. The CD's he was holding was EXO's EXODUS album and SHINee's Odd, two albums that came out this year and I absolutely love. My WBCM Add loves EXO and SHINee, HAHA! In the oneshot collection series witness him learning about the two members - 'Luris and Ku Fan' - leaving the group and filing lawsuits against 'D.M Entertainment'. That's gonna be a running gag series within the oneshot collection, or at least in my plans. _

_Little bits of here and there about Eve...Wonder why, ya know? Hehe that's for you to figure out, which shouldn't be hard if you take the title into account hehe. _

_I'm too tired to rable today, so let me just-_

**Reviewer Reply Time!**

**To Siilver Phantom: **Thank you! I tried really hard in the beginning and somehow lost the motivation by the end, hehe. I love the beginning too.

**To Sky-Of-Silver-Lining: **If it's To-Aru Majutsu no Index(A Certain Magical Index) / To Aru Kagaku no Railgun(A Certain Scientific Railgun), I've already watched it. Uh...I'm kind of guilty to say I skipped everything that didn't have Accelerator in it, haha...I read the novels, though - or at least tried to..

**To Babylon1914: **Thank you! I'm so glad to hear you look forward to my story a lot, it gives me will power, haha! Hopefully it continues to reach your expectations though

**To FumeKnight: **Thank you! Don't say that, everybody can write if they practice. I still have a long way to go and I have many mistakes that I should learn from, so the two of us should both work hard, right! Thank you and I'll try to reach your standards as best as I could.

**Thank you everyone who has favourited and followed my story! Even though I say this every chapter, I mean 100% of it when I say that just seeing favourites and follows make my day. I look at my email more often now because I love seeing the amount of people who want me to write - it really gives me the strength to keep going! **

On that note, I'm so tired... I'll try update more often..., well, after my soul heals from lack of otp fuel

Mesti


	6. Agenda

_**A/N:**_ Sorry guys for not updating for such a long time! I had a bit of a self-esteem issue about my writing as of late, and I also went on holiday for two weeks with my family, plus a stack of assignments, and other fandoms- I'm really sorry. This story was eating me up with guilt so I tried my best to put something together because I love you guys that much. I'm really sorry that this is **short** and I promise the next chapter is going to be lengthy!

**Disclaimer: I do not own Elsword or the characters, I only own this story's idea.**

* * *

_I'm a leader. I will lead you to the next step._

* * *

Although their bold declaration onto the phase two of their plan, the two had only made it to the outskirts of Elder when Add had paused in his tracks and stepped off his dynamo. Curling his fingers into a small fist, he placed it over his mouth and stared into the distance, eyes narrowed and brows furrowed. Eve stared at him in surprise and curiosity. "What's wrong, Add?" she asked simply, placing a hand on her waist while she turned towards him. "Did you forget something at Ms. Echo's?"

"No, I didn't forget anything at the shrimp's place, though-" He bit his lip, waving his hand to summon a window. Skimming his eyes across the readings, he glanced towards her. "Do you have any data on reliable power sources?"

Blinking, she stopped for a moment and shut her eyes.

**SEARCH DATA BASE: POWER SOURCE RECORDS**

**SEARCHING…**

**ONE INPUT FOUND: El Core Functions. **

She blinked and attempted to search deeper, but was only caught in a simple warning.

**NO OTHER DATA RECEIVED**

As she faced Add's expectant look, she shook her head. Clicking his teeth, he opened the bountiful of windows he had and skimmed his eyes across the titles. He sighs heavily while he skim read the terminal of his data record, placing a hand over his face. "The data I have is insufficient – actually, all I have is data on your core," he glanced towards the gem on her forehead, "so if you'd be so willing to compl-"

"No."

"But for the power so-"

"No."

"We're so close tho-"

"I said _no,_ Add," she said firmly. "Let me change it to a _never_."

Running his hand across his hair, he ruffled it in frustration. Add swiped the windows away and turned back to look at the town of Elder one more time. There was no saying if a mage such as Echo were to provide them information so easily about the locations of where power ores were. Reasons being that it was an unwritten rule among tradesmen to never mention the location of when and where they had obtained such high quality goods. Echo, although being an alchemist, of course made affiliations with Hoffman and other tradesmen among Elder, therefore she shared the same code of secrecy with the others.

The lunatic tapped his foot while his irritated continued to grow when he continuously drew to a blank. "What the fuck do we do now? My dynamo will not run the program unless we have a sufficient key," he complained, motioning for his dynamo to morph into a chair position. Sitting back, Add shot a glare. "This is your chance to shine, Eve. I've already taken care of the rest- no; I've actually pretty much completed everything. My side of the bargain is **finished**. Now it's your turn."

Keeping her silence, they held an intense gaze towards each other; Add's lilac against Eve's daffodil. His left eye no longer flickered with animosity or any sort of bite.

A little something the queen found surprising.

Upon closer inspection she had a proper analysis of his eyes – he held a heterochromatic resemblance in the pupil for his left had the icon of a power switch drawn in white; the eye that flickers ominously when he's feeling angry. As she zoomed in there his sclera was at the slightest shade of red, very unnoticeable but still there (she assumed it might be due to the slight lack in rest) and to her conclusion—

He had very pretty eyes.

"Did you hear a single word I said?" Add huffed, folding his arms. "I'm at a point blank, queen. At least take the initiative and act as a ruler and I don't know- guide me to the right path in life?"

"Is that a mockery of my title?"

"No, I'm actually serious about this," he stood up and walked towards her, closing a distance. The more she took a closer look at him, his height had increased significantly and the two were no longer matched; he around half a head taller than her. Staring deeply into her lenses, he placed his hands on her shoulders. "As much as it tastes like shit to say this, but I _need _your help, Eve. I only know so far into magical geology, and that isn't even relevant to the possible power sources we could use."

A part of her lightened at those words. Her engine functioned at a quicker rate than usual and an autopilot system almost curved her lips into a smile had she not been conscious at the very moment. When the other took a step back to look around, his dynamo fluttering about in the air behind him, she nodded.

Right, it was her turn to lead. She couldn't keep being reliant on the commoner.

"If I remembered correctly," Eve raised her head and straightened her back, Moby and Remy circling behind her. "I overheard a couple of passing travellers earlier talking over a temple that resides in a desolate valley named Feita. I only heard as far as a mention about the possibility of high energized relics or stones lingering around the floors of the Feita temple. The chances of possible power sources are around fifty-fifty, and if you decide that we'll—"

"We'll go."

"—then I already downloaded the co-ordinates from a nearby map," she finished, "Then we shall follow under my command."

Add looked disdained at the idea, lips etched with a deep frown and rolled his eyes once he heard the proposal, but complied anyway. He returned to step beside her once more, gave out a deep sigh then gestured his hand over towards the distance. The Nasod dynamo danced behind him. "Lead the way, then."

Eve felt a small warm feeling bubble inside of her when she took the step forward in front of him, her lips breaking out into an upwards curve. Perhaps she was feeling 'happy', as humans had put it.

* * *

"Are you _sure _we're going the right way? I don't see _anything_."

"The percentage of this being the accurate direction is one-hundred. This is the right way."

"If it's the right way how come I still see nothing but fucking red rocks—and holy El it's goddamn _hot_."

"Feita is North West of Bethma, and the road towards it is guaranteed to be around thirty-five degrees Celsius on an average. Current temperature is thirty-three."

Approximately one hour after they had left the vicinity of Elder, they were introduced into the blazing heat of the Bethma Desert. They had managed to see the town in the view before Eve had instructed the direction to completely miss the town and pointed to the North West—where the sun was shining directly below, and the vision of the distance was completely distorted due to the heat waves. Add gaped in disbelief for five minutes while he tried to argue that it _probably _wasn't the right way until Eve had brought up that he let _her _lead. That shut him up, sans the muttering of curses under his breath.

Ever since then, there had been nonstop complaints escaping Add's mouth, much to Eve's irritation. Maybe the heat was getting to her system, but her tolerance program was becoming less and less effective as they ventured under the ferocious sun.

"I swear to Lady El, if this isn't the right direction I'll kill you on spot and grab the fucking gem," Add growled, but there was no real animosity in his words. The two of them knew that he probably _won't_, because 1) Add is energy less due to dehydration and well Eve is a Nasod and is fully charged,

And 2), from the amount of time the two of them had spent together it was a shared, mutual fact that Add wasn't really going to kill Eve. He had used that threat far too many times and in the past Eve would've immediately bit back, but as of the present, Eve only shrugged it off and so did Add.

How that came to be still remained a mystery for the two of them nor why they feel such a thing, but they both know (and even try to deny) that it's still there—they have a _bond_.

"I should have installed a fucking cooler into these things," Add grunted as he pushed back his fringe, sweat pouring down his sharp jaw, "_Fuck_, once I get this power source of whatever I'm taking a hundred showers. Argh, I stink so much—"

"The more you complain the more energy you use up," Eve cut him off pulling back the sleeves of her dress which clung to her arms due to the waste oil that had poured out of her 'skin'. It revealed her slender, milky white arms that have the tiniest bolts by the bend of the elbow; a reminder of her non-human ethnicity. "So I suggest you save it."

Unknown by the queen, but from behind her Add couldn't help but admire the Eve's arms; how the coated oil made her skin glisten brightly under the radiance of the sun. Observing her arms made his eyes trail all the way across her figure- a light frame, small and feeble. While the skirt of her dress was absurdly large, her hair was collected and draped on the side of one shoulder to reveal her back, which clung tightly to her body. Plus her shallow extra breaths of air were quite audible to his ears, and every time she moves the tighter the dress clings, exposing more.

When the irises trail down, he can't help but ponder what the lower half would look like-

He slapped himself audibly. Eve glanced back to look at him for a moment. "What?"

"Nothing," he replied, tone hoarse and strangely weak. He averted his eyes, red-faced. "Just, nothing."

_Fuck teenage hormones._

"Suit yourself," Eve replied blankly, looking ahead. Add suddenly felt the need to slip his jacket off and tie the sleeves around his waist, hiding his front. He awkwardly cleared his throat and his dynamo beneath him vibrated – in a sense, mimicking a snicker. He pushed his hair back and continued onwards, following after her.

While they ventured onwards, there was a noticeable change in atmosphere. Darkened clouds shrouded the area as a temple came into the view while they approached. The area remained humid, but the drastic change in atmosphere was ominous. When they proceeded closer, they caught a sight of a small abundance of creatures lingering inside. A bit further away, they also saw worried and terrified expressions of locals communicating with a small gang of misfits.

"Well, we only came here for energy sources," Add whistled sarcastically while they stood from a distance afar, only watching with Eve by his side. She looked just a little bit horrified, but strangely calm. "So that's what we're here for."

"Search the grounds," Eve ordered. "Avoid contact with any monsters, we remain stealthy and try to not engage in battle."

Before Add could protest, she gave him the expectant look – _I'm leading, remember?_ – and then continued her way in, leaving him dumbfounded by the entrance. Sighing heavily, he followed her in.

They were here for their own separate motive, after all. They were here for their own self-benefit.

Not to waste time helping anyone else.

* * *

("I wonder if past spirits linger in this temple," Eve whispers quietly in thought. Add flinches.

"Ghosts aren't scientifically proven to be real," he retorted stiffly, "Ghosts aren't real, they aren't real, they aren't real..."

"If you say so.")

* * *

_**A/N:**_ So while I was dead for quite some time I was into my old KPOP fandoms and then I was hit with an idea - an Actors!AU. That's parallel to this universe! So in a way, that story is the behind the scenes version of this story.  
I've started writing the first chapter and so far it's around 3.2k words! The ship is, of course, Add x Eve. The characters within the story are going to be noticably out of character on purpose because _hey_, it's sort of a modern AU and they are actors - but worry not! They'll act like Add and Eve, because the plot is based around sort of "fake-dating" but not really. Here's a basic summary:

_"How can you tell the difference between acting and reality?" _

_Budding actor Adam Kim is finally bestowed his first ever role: the main character of a drama called Monstrosity. The directors praise him for his accurate portrayal of the character 'Add' and everything is going fine until the real genre of the film shows itself in the script: Romance. With no experience in the field, Adam struggles to portray a decent emotion of 'love'. So he seeks help: from his co-star, Eva Sadon. _

Essentially, it's got eight-grader syndrome mixed in with some second-hand embarrassment - a romantic comedy story. Glimpses of bloopers and extra what-ifs that didn't make it into the actual cut of WCBM are also included!

I'll be writing that while I write this, so updates will take a lot longer. As a result, I**'m shortening the updates. **

Hope that's okay with you guys! At least I'll be able to update quicker!

**Reviewer Reply Time!**

**SiilverPhantom: **Haha thank you! I'm glad you liked it. C/N and DiE job changes will come at the very end, and it'll be completely different from the canon hehe, just a little hint!

**Babylon1914: **This makes me so glad to know, you don't understand how happy this made me! This story was eating me up with guilt because I simply didn't know how to put into words how it was gonna go and I struggled for a long time, but I hope you still keep with me even if I take ages and ages because I'm simply a moron and I can't write to save my life...Thank you very much!

**YourSilentReader: **Yay for KPOP buddies! I'll be inserting heaps of them in the other story hehe.

**ShootAnonymous: **That's for you to find out!

**Gumi: **I am _definitely _keeping this idea in mind. If you don't mind, may I use it for the one-shot collection? I'll credit you of course! Thank you!

**Sky-of-Silver-Lining: **It's part of one of the extra omakes.

**zombiefoot6: **i'll try lol

**BlackDeadCat: **Thank you, i'm sorry this wasn't very long. I'll try my best for the next one!

**JustAReader: **Thank you very much, this really makes me happy!

**Even if I say this over and over, I love you all who favourite/follow my story. It is literally the main reason I keep writing, no matter how many times I erase/delete because I just get so mad at myself - it gives me hope that you guys are willing enough to spare some time to read ... _this_. I'm very grateful, I love you all. **

Because this was short, I'll give you a hint on what the next chapter is going to be about. **There is a reason for the description of Add's eyes.**

Mesti

* * *

odd eyes  
_Show me your eyes, Don't hide._


End file.
